LIBRARY 

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SAN  01  EGO 


THE 

NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY 
ORATIONS 


THE 

NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY 
ORATIONS 


ADDRESSES   SERMONS    AND    POEMS    DELIVERED   BEFORE 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  IN  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 

1820-1885 


COLLECTED  AND  EDITED  BY 

CEPHAS  BRAINERD 

AND 

EVELINE  WARNER   BRAINERD 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  SOCIETY 

VOLUME  II 


NEW  YORK 

ZIbe  Centun?  Co. 

MCMI 


Copyright,  1901,  by 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  IN 

THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


THE  DEVINNE  PRESS 


CONTENTS 


MM 

JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL i 

Discourse,  1847 

HORACE  BUSHNELL,  D.D. 81 

The  Founders,  Great  in  their  Unconsciousness,  1849 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 121 

The  Constitution  and  the  Union,  1850 

GEORGE  S.  HILLARD 135 

The  Past  and  the  Future,  1851 

WILLIAM  ADAMS,  D.D 163 

Address,  1852 

MARK  HOPKINS,  D.D 203 

The  Central  Principle,   1853 

WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS 235 

The  Heritage  of  the  Pilgrims,  1854 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES,  M.D 267 

Oration,  1855 

JOHN  PIERPONT,  D.D 303 

The  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  1855 

RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS 327 

The  Puritan  Scheme  of  National  Growth,  1857 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 371 

Oration  and  Response,  1870 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS -397 

Oration,  1885 


DISCOURSE 

4 

JONATHAN   PRESCOTT  HALL 
1847 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL 
(1796-1863.) 

THE  speaker  at  the  anniversary  held  at  the  Tabernacle  in  1847 
was  the  eminent  lawyer  J.  Prescott  Hall.  He  was  of  Puritan 
ancestry,  a  native  of  New  England,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  bred  to 
the  Connecticut  bar,  and  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  that 
State.  For  a  time  he  dropped  his  profession,  turning  to  manu- 
facturing interests.  Being  called  to  argue  a  case  in  connection 
with  these  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  his 
abilities  so  impressed  the  opposing  counsel,  Mr.  Webster,  that 
he  inquired  where  Mr.  Hall  was  practising.  On  learning  that 
his  adversary  had  given  up  the  bar  for  manufacture,  Mr.  Web- 
ster said:  "Young  man,  you  have  too  much  talent  to  waste  it 
in  greasing  cotton-spindles." 

Thus  influenced,  Mr.  Hall  entered  into  partnership  with  his 
brother,  David  Priestly  Hall,  then  in  practice  in  New  York. 
Later,  J.  Prescott  Hall  became  the  partner  of  Charles  Butler, 
and  subsequently  of  William  M.  Evarts.  From  the  adminis- 
tration of  President  Taylor,  Mr.  Hall  received  the  office  of 
District  Attorney  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York.  He 
was  a  man  of  brilliant  mental  powers  and  of  splendid  presence. 
From  a  short  sketch  by  Rowland  Hall,  Esq.,  is  quoted  the  fol- 
lowing description.  "As  a  lawyer,  without  great  application  he 
easily  reached  and  held  his  position  as  a  leader  of  the  bar; 
possessed  of  great  nimbleness  both  of  mind  and  speech,  he 
shone  greatly  as  a  speaker  even  in  that  day  of  great  orators. 
He  was  honest,  sincere,  the  foe  of  hypocrisy,  and  full  of  a  sar- 
castic wit,  from  which  pretence  of  every  kind  recoiled  abashed." 


DISCOURSE 


TO  trace  the  rise  and  progress  of  communities;  to 
follow  the  fortunes  and  elucidate  the  character  of 
those  who  have  laid  the  foundation  of  new  associations  ; 
to  preserve  from  decay  the  memory  of  illustrious  men, 
who  have  transferred  from  one  hemisphere  to  another, 
the  arts  of  peace,  the  blessings  of  liberty,  and  the  con- 
solations of  religion;  belong  perhaps,  to  the  province 
of  history,  rather  than  to  a  brief  address,  upon  a  special 
occasion.  And  yet,  we  who  are  now  assembled,  may 
with  strict  propriety,  and  not  without  a  sense  of  just 
pride,  cast  our  eyes  back  upon  the  events  of  the  last  two 
centuries,  while  we  contemplate  the  ancestry  from 
which  we  are  sprung,  and  the  causes  which  have  led  to 
our  being  here,  this  day,  to  present  our  grateful  offer- 
ings upon  the  altar  of  our  national  existence. 

"Difficilis  est  (says  the  learned  Grotius,)  rerum  ges- 
tarum  narratio:  quae  absentem,  fugiunt;  presentem, 
trahunt."  It  is  difficult  to  give  a  correct  narrative  of 
events  ;  they  escape  the  observation  of  those  who  were 
not  witnesses  ;  while  those  who  were  present,  are  drawn 
away  by  their  force,  or  become  parties  in  the  scene. 

But  the  story  of  our  origin,  as  a  people,  is  not  ob- 
scure. We  are  not  compelled,  like  other  nations,  to 
trace  back  our  race  through  rude  ages  of  barbarism,  to 
the  dim  uncertainty  of  tradition  and  fable.  The  foun- 
dations of  society  in  New  England  and  the  origin  of  its 

3 


4       NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Institutions,  both  civil  and  religious,  may  be  correctly 
ascertained ;  for  their  history  has  been  written  and  pub- 
lished to  the  whole  world. 

In  the  mythology  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  Goddess 
of  Wisdom  is  fabled  to  have  sprung  into  existence  from 
the  head  of  Jupiter,  completely  armed  and  all  perfect. 
In  like  manner,  the  first  settlements  of  New  England 
came  into  being,  as  communities,  with  all  the  attributes 
of  organized  society,  and  all  the  restraints  of  good  gov- 
ernment and  subordination. 

The  day  which  we  now  celebrate,  is  a  memorable  one, 
in  the  annals  of  our  country ;  a  day  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten or  disregarded.  If  the  fourth  of  July,  1776,  was, 
in  the  estimation  of  the  patriotic  John  Adams,  a  mem- 
orable epoch,  to  be  commemorated  as  the  day  of  deliv- 
erance, to  be  solemnized  with  pomp,  shows,  bonfires 
and  illuminations,  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the 
other,  how  much  more  is  the  22d  of  December,  1620, 
which  marks  the  period  when  the  national  existence  of 
New  England  began,  to  be  held  in  remembrance  by  us 
and  our  successors,  "from  that  time  forward  forever !" 

We  are  here  assembled,  Gentlemen  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Society,  to  celebrate  this  great  occasion.  To  say 
to  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  if  in  the  mysterious 
ties  which  bind  the  present  and  the  past  together,  such 
communications  can  be  held,  that  we  have  not  forgotten 
the  days  of  their  labor  and  sorrow ;  that  the  history  of 
their  perilous  fortunes  has  not  been  blotted  out,  nor  that 
of  their  self-devotion  gone  into  oblivion;  that  their 
children,  grateful  for  the  sacrifices  which  they  endured, 
full  of  admiration  at  their  example,  proud  of  a  descent 
from  such  illustrious  progenitors,  year  by  year  assem- 
ble themselves  together  to  commemorate  the  great 
events  of  past  centuries,  that  their  fathers'  names  may 
not  be  forgotten  or  lost  from  among  men. 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  5 

This  Society,  of  which  we  are  members,  was  not 
founded  upon  narrow,  or  sectional  predilections.  Hav- 
ing its  beginning  in  wise  and  generous  purposes,  its 
chief  object  is,  and  ever  has  been,  to  connect  the  natives 
of  New  England  and  their  descendants  with  the  early 
history  of  their  country;  that,  by  the  considerations  of 
a  common  ancestry,  the  emotions  of  a  natural  sym- 
pathy might  be  excited,  and  the  bonds  of  union 
strengthened;  and  thus,  that  the  descendants  of  those, 
who  braved  the  same  dangers,  to  attain  the  same  ends, 
might  be  led  to  kindly  thoughts  of  one  another;  and 
finally  to  kindly  acts  and  benevolent  associations. 

We  do  not  arrogate  to  ourselves,  or  assert  for  our- 
selves, any  superiority  over  the  inhabitants  of  any  other 
part  of  the  country,  either  in  the  manner  of  our  origin, 
or  in  our  progress  towards  maturity.  Conceding  to  all 
sections  of  the  Union  a  beginning  equally  as  respect- 
able, a  progress  equally  honorable,  and  a  present  condi- 
tion quite  as  prosperous  as  our  own,  we,  nevertheless, 
have  a  right,  without  offence  to  others,  to  consider  our 
family  relations,  and  as  the  children  of  common  pa- 
rents, to  assemble  ourselves  together,  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present,  and  look  back  with  grateful  remem- 
brance upon  those  who,  through  peril,  hardship  and 
privation,  subdued  the  wilderness  for  our  benefit  and 
laid  here  the  foundations  of  law,  order  and  religion  so 
broad  and  deep,  that  we  may  erect  superstructures  upon 
them,  massive  and  high,  without  endangering  the  solid 
basis  beneath. 

Look  back  upon  the  origin  of  the  first  settlements  of 
New  England,  and  tell  me  in  what  annals,  other  than 
our  own,  can  you  find  the  history  of  a  people,  who,  sur- 
rounded at  home  by  the  comforts  of  social  life;  suf- 
fering no  intolerable  evils  from  the  tyranny  of  gov- 
ernment; weighed  down  by  no  excessive  burthens; 


6       NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

untempted  by  prospects  of  gain;  unswayed  by  the  lust 
of  conquest;  abandoned,  nevertheless,  all  that  home, 
kindred  and  country  could  offer,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
enjoying  an  unrestrained  liberty  of  thinking  and  acting 
upon  the  great  rights  of  conscience,  free  from  the  domi- 
nation of  ecclesiastical  control.  Look  at  them  assem- 
bled upon  the  shores  of  their  native,  their  beautiful 
Island,  prepared  to  undergo  all  the  hardship  and  perils 
of  voluntary  exile!  Whose  cheek  blanches;  whose 
eye  grows  dim  as  they  look  upon  the  waste  of  waters 
which  shuts  them  out  from  the  distant  and  unknown 
shores?  Why  should  they  leave  this  pleasant  land? 
Why  should  they  desert  their  tranquil  homes?  What 
dire  necessity  drives  them  forth?  It  is  not  poverty 
goading  the  Irishman  to  fairer  scenes  and  more  fruitful 
climes;  it  is  not  the  Pole,  scourged  forth  by  the  iron 
whip  of  a  military  tyranny ;  nor  the  blue-eyed  German, 
escaping  from  the  grinding  exactions  of  a  toilsome 
and  hopeless,  because  unrewarded  labor. 

No,  none  of  these  motives  impels  or  drives  them  for- 
ward :  but  they  are  drawn  by  an  impulse  more  powerful 
than  the  love  of  home,  or  parents,  or  country.  It  is 
the  still  small  voice  of  conscience,  which  tells  them  of 
a  duty  higher  and  purer  and  holier  than  all  these ;  and 
in  obedience  to  its  dictates,  they  must  go  forth  to  wor- 
ship the  God  of  their  fathers  in  the  wilderness. 

"It  is  not  the  least  debt"  (says  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,) 
"we  owe  unto  history,  that  it  hath  made  us  acquainted 
with  our  dead  ancestors,  and  delivered  us  their  memory 
and  fame.  Besides,  we  gather  out  of  it  a  policy  no  less 
wise  than  eternal,  by  the  comparison  and  application  of 
other  men's  fore-passed  mercies  with  our  own  like 
errors  and  ill-deservings." 

The  history  of  our  ancestors  is  indeed  of  inestimable 
worth  to  their  descendants;  though  by  it,  our  "ill-de- 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  7 

servings"  may,  perhaps,  stand  out  in  more  prominent 
relief  against  their  fore-past  mercies.  But  their  ex- 
ample remains  for  all  time  to  come.  Simple,  unpre- 
tending, high-minded  and  pure  of  purpose,  the  Pil- 
grims of  New  England  went  forth  for  great  objects,  to 
be  attempted  at  first  by  inconsiderable  means. 

And  who  composed  this  devoted  band,  these  Pilgrims 
in  the  desert?  Were  they  an  ignorant  and  fanatical 
sect,  enticed  from  their  homes  by  ambitious  leaders, 
taking  advantage  of  a  newly-awakened  religious  enthu- 
siasm, for  the  accomplishment  of  their  own  selfish  ob- 
jects? or  were  they  educated  and  well-informed  men, 
of  large  experience,  prudent,  sagacious  and  wise? 

The  early  settlers  of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut and  New  Haven,  (for  at  the  first,  these  Colo- 
nies were  separate  and  independent  jurisdictions,) 
numbered  among  their  ranks  many  individuals  eminent 
for  their  learning,  and  distinguished  by  their  personal 
condition.  Mr.  Carver,  the  first  Governor  of  Ply- 
mouth, was  a  gentleman  well  known,  and  of  elevated 
character,  who  originally  had  a  good  estate  in  Eng- 
land; but  being  among  the  earliest  emigrants  to  Ley- 
den  and  America,  and  one  of  their  principal  agents,  he 
liberally  used  his  fortune  for  the  benefit  of  his  asso- 
ciates; setting  a  most  illustrious  example  of  patience, 
self-denial  and  generosity,  through  long  years  devoted 
to  the  good  of  others,  and  the  advancement  of  that 
cause,  for  which  he  staked,  and  finally  sacrificed,  his 
life.  William  Bradford,  a  name  never  to  be  men- 
tioned without  honor  by  a  descendant  of  the  Pilgrims, 
although  in  some  degree  a  self-taught  scholar,  was 
nevertheless  familiar  with  the  Dutch  and  French  lan- 
guages, and  attained  to  a  considerable  intimacy  with 
the  Latin  and  Greek.  But  that  he  might  "see  the  an- 
cient oracles  of  God  in  their  native  beauty,"  he  applied 


8       NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

himself,  in  his  leisure  moments, to  the  study  of  Hebrew ; 
and  through  his  whole  life  was  much  devoted  to  literary 
pursuits ;  although  he  inherited  a  good  landed  property 
from  his  father,  and  was  educated  for  the  manly  em- 
ployments of  agriculture;  yet,  in  his  early  youth,  hav- 
ing his  mind  deeply  impressed  with  its  responsibilities 
to  a  higher  power,  he  passed  over  to  Holland  to  join 
the  little  band  of  non-conformists  who  had  chosen  an 
asylum  there  against  the  ecclesiastical  tyranny  of  King 
James.  Mr.  Cotton,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of 
his  time,  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  was  eminently  distinguished  for  his  scholastic 
attainments.  He  wrote  Latin  with  elegance,  was  a 
critic  in  Greek,  and  so  well  skilled  in  the  Hebrew 
tongue  that  he  could  discourse  in  that  language. 
Brewster,  the  steadfast  and  devout  elder,  who,  in  the 
midst  of  want,  if  not  absolute  famine,  gave  thanks  to 
God  that  his  family  were  permitted  "to  suck  of  the 
abundance  of  the  seas,  and  of  the  treasures  hid  in  the 
sand,"  also  educated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
was  at  one  time  connected  with  the  British  Embassy  in 
Holland.  Higginson  was  a  graduate  from  Emanuel 
College.  Eaton  and  Hopkins  had  been  eminent  mer- 
chants in  London.  Mr.  Davenport,  a  student  of  Ox- 
ford, and  a  minister  of  great  fame  at  home,  was  also  a 
distinguished  scholar,  eminent  alike  for  learning  and 
virtue.  Edward  Winslow,  the  brave  man  who  offered 
himself  as  a  hostage  for  his  Colony  in  their  first  inter- 
view with  the  savage  monarch  of  Mount  Hope,  pos- 
sessed both  fortune  and  information.  In  his  travels  on 
the  Continent  of  Europe,  becoming  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Robinson,  he  adopted  his  sentiments  and  finally  joined 
the  emigrants  who  came  to  Plymouth;  and  after  per- 
forming for  them  the  most  signal  services,  in  the  midst 
of  great  and  boldly  encountered  dangers,  he  at  last 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  9 

laid  down  his  life  for  his  country  in  that  unfortunate 
expedition  fitted  out  by  Cromwell  against  the  Spaniards 
in  the  West  Indies.  Mr.  Hooker,  a  most  eloquent  di- 
vine, and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut, was  educated  at  Cambridge  in  England.  His 
command  of  language  was  so  great,  that,  like  Whitfield, 
he  usually  delivered  his  discourses  without  reference  to 
notes;  while  his  expressive  countenance  and  personal 
demeanor,  added  a  majesty  to  his  presence,  which  com- 
manded at  once  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  hear- 
ers. Mr.  Stone,  at  one  time  an  associate  with  Mr. 
Hooker,  and  a  graduate  of  the  same  University,  was 
one  of  the  most  accurate  logicians  of  his  day,  celebrated 
not  only  for  acuteness,  but  also  for  wit,  humor  and 
pleasantry.  And  it  may  be  here  observed,  that  many 
of  the  learned  persons  whose  names  are  now  men- 
tioned, have  left  to  their  posterity  most  striking  evi- 
dences of  their  attainments,  in  the  various  works  for 
which  they  were,  in  their  own  times,  particularly  dis- 
tinguished. Winthrop,  a  name  prolific  in  illustrious 
men — a  gentleman  of  education  and  bred  to  the  law, 
inherited  from  his  ancestors  an  estate  of  six  hundred 
pounds  a  year:  an  income,  which  would  be  accounted 
even  in  these  less  frugal  days,  quite  competent  to  main- 
tain the  condition  in  which  he  was  born.  Eminent 
himself,  he  transmitted  his  name  and  fame,  through 
two  chief  magistrates  of  Connecticut,  son  and  grand- 
son ;  and  finally,  the  same  blood  coming  down  to  a  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts,  flows,  through  him, 
in  the  veins  of  the  distinguished  representative  from 
Boston,  who  now  presides  over  the  popular  branch  of 
the  American  Congress.  In  one  word — not  to  swell 
the  long  catalogue — if  we  look  at  the  whole  body  of 
the  emigrants  by  the  Mayflower  and  Speedwell,  the 
Arbella,  the  Ambrose,  the  Talbot  and  the  Jewel,  we  can 


io     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

nowhere  find  names  more  eminent  for  prudence  and 
forecast,  or  more  remarkable  for  intelligence,  enterprise 
and  courage.  If  Lord  Chatham,  while  speaking  of  the 
renowned  Patriots  of  our  Independence,  could  say,  that 
he  never  had  heard  or  read  of  any  body  of  men  supe- 
rior to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  what  may  we  not 
say  of  those,  who,  on  the  bleak  snores  of  New  England, 
in  the  midst  of  the  desolations  of  winter,  surrounded  by 
perils  and  want,  could,  nevertheless,  so  far  subdue 
themselves  to  the  elements,  and  the  elements  to  them, 
as  not  to  venture  forth  from  the  dreary  prison  of  their 
ship,  until  they  had  combined  themselves  together  for 
their  better  order  and  preservation,  by  framing  a  gen- 
eral law  for  the  good  government  of  the  Colony?  And 
this  too  in  the  most  perfect  spirit  of  liberty  and  equality. 

In  what  other  records  of  man's  history  do  you  find 
such  evidences  of  just  subordination,  and  solemn  pur- 
pose; such  moral  and  such  Christian  elevation?  The 
very  name  by  which  they  designated  themselves  is  sig- 
nificant of  their  character,  and  marks  at  once  their  cour- 
age and  humility.  "And  the  time  being  come  (says 
Governor  Bradford,)  that  they  must  depart,  they  were 
accompanied  to  a  town,  sundry  miles  off,  called  Delft 
Haven,  where  the  ship  lay  ready  to  receive  them.  So 
they  left  that  goodly  and  pleasant  City  which  had  been 
their  resting-place  near  twelve  years.  But  they  knew 
they  were  PILGRIMS,  and  looked  not  much  on  those 
things,  but  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  Heaven,  their  dearest 
country,  and  quieted  their  spirits !" 

What  words  of  pathos  and  simplicity!  They  knew 
they  were  Pilgrims,  and  looked  not  much  on  those 
things!  Yes,  they  were  indeed  Pilgrims.  Pilgrims 
bound  on  no  ordinary  journey,  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
no  ordinary  society,  to  establish  a  name  not  soon  to  fade 
away;  for  while  admiration  of  purity  and  excellence 


JONATHAN   PRESCOTT  HALL  u 

shall  endure,  so  long  as  respect  for  departed  worth  shall 
remain  among  their  descendants,  so  long  shall  the  name 
of  "Pilgrim"  be  honored  and  revered. 

Among  the  many  remarkable  qualities  with  which 
Providence,  for  its  own  wise  ends,  seems  to  have  en- 
dued the  character  of  our  ancestors,  I  know  of  none 
more  striking  or  admirable  than  their  love  of  order,  and 
their  submission  to  those  just  restraints  whereby  so- 
ciety is  held  together,  property  respected,  personal  se- 
curity guarded,  and  public  liberty  preserved. 

From  the  very  first,  the  necessity  for  such  submission 
was  apparent  to  their  minds.  Recollect,  that  before 
they  left  the  ship  which  had  conveyed  them  safely 
across  the  boisterous  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  borne  up  in 
the  "hollow  of  that  hand"  which  never  ceased  to  sup- 
port them,  they  projected,  formed  and  signed,  the  first 
compact  for  liberal  government,  under  equal  laws,  of 
which  we  have  any  record. 

No  men  ever  understood  better  than  they,  the  proper 
foundations  of  republican  government,  or  the  just  prin- 
ciples by  which  alone  true  liberty  and  equality  can  be 
maintained.  "The  best  part  of  a  community,"  said 
Governor  Winthrop,  in  a  letter  to  the  people  of  Con- 
necticut, "is  always  the  least;  and  of  that  least,  the 
wiser  are  still  less."  "There  is,"  said  he  on  another 
occasion,  "a  liberty  of  corrupt  nature,  which  is  incon- 
sistent with  authority,  impatient  of  restraint,  the  enemy 
of  truth  and  peace,  and  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are 
bent  against  it.  But  there  is  a  civil,  a  moral,  a  federal 
liberty,  which  consists  in  every  one's  enjoying  his  prop- 
erty and  having  the  benefit  of  the  laws  of  his  country ; 
a  liberty  of  that  only  which  is  just  and  good ;  for  THIS 
liberty,  you  are  to  stand  with  your  lives." 

Wise  legislator  of  the  old  time,  just,  sagacious  and 
true !  did  your  prophetic  gaze  pierce  forward  two  cen- 


12     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

turies  to  our  times,  for  this  picture  of  democratic  free- 
dom; to  view  and  describe  a  liberty  of  corrupt  nature, 
inconsistent  with  authority,  impatient  of  restraint,  the 
enemy  of  truth  and  peace?  If  haply,  you  should  have 
beheld  such  scenes  in  your  vision,  and  turned  your  eyes 
from  the  prospect,  dim  and  suffused  with  tears,  look 
once  again,  and  you  shall  yet  behold  the  better  portion 
of  your  descendants,  "standing  with  their  lives,"  for 
that  liberty,  which  is  just  and  good,  which  gives  to 
every  one  the  enjoyment  of  his  own  property,  and  the 
benefit  of  the  laws  of  his  country. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  perhaps,  that  when  the 
project  for  the  settlement  of  New  England  was  first  en- 
tertained the  state  of  public  sentiment  in  the  land  of  our 
ancestors  began  to  be  favorable  to  the  commencement 
of  such  an  enterprise.  It  was  at  the  close  of  the  reign 
of  James  the  First,  when  men's  minds  were  agitated  by 
new  views  of  their  rights  and  privileges.  The  iron 
sway  of  the  last  Henry  had  been  in  some  measure  for- 
gotten, while  that  of  his  stern  and  lion-hearted  daugh- 
ter had  lost  a  large  portion  of  its  influence,  during  the 
weak  and  undignified,  yet  assuming  administration  of 
the  learned,  but  contemptible,  Scottish  king.  His  sub- 
jects had  at  this  period,  begun  to  think  for  themselves. 
The  reforms  of  Luther  had  spread  their  influence  be- 
yond the  sea  and  over  the  land.  The  bigotry  of  Papal 
power  was  not  able  to  subdue  or  keep  down  the  awak- 
ened spirit  of  inquiry.  A  deep  sense  of  religious  obli- 
gation, in  a  large  class  of  English  thinkers,  had  taken 
the  place  of  forms  and  masses,  of  indulgences  and  dis- 
pensations. The  accountability  of  man,  as  an  indi- 
vidual, had  become  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  the 
devout  and  reflecting.  Although  the  time  for  the  en- 
joyment of  religious  freedom  in  their  own  land  had  not 
yet  come,  yet  the  waves  of  public  opinion  had  begun  to 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  13 

move  and  heave  in  a  manner  which  indicated  that  the 
great  internal  power  which  caused  the  agitation,  could 
not  long  be  pent  up  or  restrained.  When  a  true  reli- 
gious sentiment  takes  possession  of  the  soul,  it  becomes 
superior  to  all  other  considerations.  A  sympathetic 
communication  extends  the  feeling  from  mind  to  mind 
and  from  heart  to  heart.  In  the -depth  of  its  fervor 
all  other  objects  are  comparatively  forgotten.  The 
strength  of  kings,  the  influence  of  forms,  and  the  re- 
wards of  obedience  to  power,  have  lost  their  influence. 
The  soul  becomes  poised  upon  itself.  Not  dreading  its 
obligation  to  men,  while  those  of  a  paramount  nature 
are  before  it,  it  cuts  aloof  from  all  worldly  consider- 
ations, and  "holds  itself  responsible  only  to  its  God." 

That  this  sentiment  was  the  exciting  cause  of  the 
first  removal  of  our  ancestors  to  Holland,  and  of  their 
subsequent  emigration  to  New  England,  has  been  con- 
ceded by  most  historians  who  have  written  upon  the 
subject,  and  may  be  assumed  as  the  basis  of  all  our 
speculations  upon  those  extraordinary  movements  com- 
menced by  the  independent  churches  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  Indeed  it  has  been  supposed,  and  not 
unfrequently  asserted,  that  the  first  settlers  at  Ply- 
mouth, went  thither,  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  en- 
joying their  religious  opinions  and  practices  in  their 
own  way,  unmolested  by  civil  control,  or  ecclesiastical 
domination.  That  this  was  the  first  object  of  those 
who  left  England,  and  passed  over  to  Holland,  in  1608, 
is  undoubtedly  true;  but  that  it  was  their  only  motive 
for  leaving  Holland,  and  coming  to  New  England,  can- 
not well  be;  for  from  the  moment  when  the  reformation 
of  Luther  had  taken  permanent  hold  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, in  the  year  1573;  from  that  moment,  the  Dutch, 
with  a  wise  policy,  granted  a  free,  absolute  and  uncon- 
trolled liberty  of  conscience,  to  all  religions  and  all 


14     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

sects;  so  that  the  Non-Conformist  of  England  could 
there  meet  the  Catholic  of  Spain,  the  Jew  of  Syria,  and 
the  Pagan  of  heathen  lands,  upon  the  equal  platform  of 
free  toleration.  So  far,  then,  as  liberty  of  conscience 
was  concerned,  there  was  no  cause  of  complaint  in  Hol- 
land. The  free  exercise  of  every  man's  religious  opin- 
ions and  practices,  was  thoroughly  guarded;  and  the 
church  of  Mr.  Robinson  might  have  remained  safely  in 
Leyden,  if  their  only  desire  had  been  to  worship  the 
God  of  their  fathers,  in  their  own  mode,  and  according 
to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences.  Indeed  the 
liberality  of  Dutch  sentiment,  in  this  behalf,  was  such 
as  to  excite  the  ridicule  of  their  neighbors,  who  in- 
timated that  their  tolerance  was  the  effect,  not  of  liberal 
principles  acting  upon  religious  subjects,  but  of  an  in- 
difference towards  religion  itself,  in  all  its  forms  and 
in  every  aspect.  Amsterdam  was  denominated  by 
Bishop  Hall,  a  "common  harbour  of  all  opinions;" 
others  called  it  "a  cage  for  unclean  birds,"  to  which 
"all  strange  religions  flocked."  And  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  introduce  a  pedant  in  one  of  their  plays  as  say- 
ing :  "I  am  a  schoolmaster,  sir,  and  would  fain  confer 
with  you  about  erecting  four  new  sects  of  religion  at 
Amsterdam." 

What  then  were  the  causes  which  first  moved  the 
Pilgrims  in  Holland  to  cast  their  eyes  towards  the  set- 
ting sun,  with  the  design  of  establishing  new  institu- 
tions in  an  unknown  country,  remote,  barbarous  and 
wild?  What  feelings  were  those  which  swelled  in  the 
hearts  of  those  conscientious  and  brave  men,  to  encoun- 
ter hardship  in  all  its  forms,  disease,  famine  and  death, 
with  their  wives  and  children,  among  savage  tribes,  on 
rock-bound  shores  ? 

Doubtless,  the  religious  sentiment  was  the  control- 
ling and  first  moving  cause;  but  it  seems  not  to  have 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  15 

been  the  only  one; — for,  as  I  have  before  observed,  if 
the  free  enjoyment  of  their  own  religion  in  their  own 
way,  was  the  sole  motive,  then  there  was  no  reason  for 
leaving  Holland,  where  their  persons,  their  property 
and  opinions,  were  absolutely  protected  by  the  law  of 
that  land.  They  left  England,  it  is  true,  for  this  one 
cause;  but  they  left  Holland  for  that  and  for  other 
causes,  which  the  Pilgrims  themselves  have  set  forth, 
in  their  own  language,  so  that  they  might  be  known  of 
all  men,  and  respected  by  their  descendants.  I  repeat 
again,  that  the  first  and  leading  motive ;  that  which  lay 
at  the  foundation  of  all  their  designs  and  actions,  was 
the  religious  sentiment  and  feeling,  which  glowed  in 
their  hearts,  and  imparted  an  energy  to  their  conduct, 
unknown  to  common  men,  unfelt  by  ordinary  minds. 
But  there  was  also  a  feeling  of  human  misery,  as  stran- 
gers in  a  strange  land;  a  yearning  after  kindred  asso- 
ciations, and  a  love  of  their  own  country,  which  no  exile 
among  a  strange  people  could  subdue,  no  absence  could 
make  them  forget,  no  estrangement  by  time  could  over- 
come. Hear  the  reasons  for  their  enterprise,  assigned 
by  one  who  was  with  them  from  the  beginning,  and 
knew  all  their  designs  and  all  their  motives. 

"They  had  come,"  says  Governor  Bradford,  "to  a 
country  where  they  saw  many  goodly  cities,  strongly 
walled,  and  filled  with  armed  men;"  but  they  heard, 
also,  "a  strange  and  uncouth  language,"  and  beheld 
manners  and  customs,  so  far  differing  from  the  vil- 
lages wherein  they  were  born,  and  bred,  and  had  so 
long  lived,  that  it  seemed  to  them  as  if  they  were  come 
into  a  new  world.  But  these  were  not  things  which 
much  took  up  their  thoughts,  for  they  had  other  work 
on  hand ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  they  saw  the  grim 
and  grisled  face  of  poverty  coming  upon  them,  like  an 
armed  man,  with  whom  they  must  buckle  and  encounter, 


16     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

and  from  whom  they  could  not  fly.  After  having  lived 
in  Holland  about  eleven  or  twelve  years,  in  the  agita- 
tion of  their  thoughts,  and  after  much  discourse,  they 
began  to  incline  to  the  conclusion  of  removal  to  some 
other  place,  not  out  of  any  new  fangledness,  or  other 
such  like  giddy  humour,  by  which  men  are  sometimes 
transported,  but  for  sundry  weighty  and  solid  reasons. 

And  first;  they  found  by  experience,  the  hardness  of 
the  place  and  country  to  be  such,  that  few  would  come 
to  them,  and  fewer  abide  with  them;  for  many  that 
came  and  desired  to  remain,  could  not  endure  the  great 
labor  they  were  contented  to  undergo.  So  severe,  in- 
deed, were  their  sufferings,  that  many  who  desired  to 
enjoy  the  ordinances  of  God  in  their  purity,  and  the 
liberty  of  the  Gospel  with  them,  yet  preferred  prisons 
in  England,  rather  than  liberty  in  Holland,  with  these 
afflictions.  But  it  was  thought  that  if  a  better  and 
easier  place  of  living  could  be  had,  it  would  take  away 
these  discouragements. 

Secondly;  they  saw  that,  although  the  people  gener- 
ally bore  their  difficulties  with  cheerfulness  and  cour- 
age, while  in  the  best  of  their  strength,  yet  old  age  had 
begun  to  come  on  some,  which  was  hastened  before  its 
time  by  their  great  and  continued  labors;  and  it  was 
seen,  that  within  a  few  years,  they  must,  of  necessity, 
sink  under  their  burthens,  or  be  scattered  before  them. 
Adopting,  therefore,  the  proverb,  that  a  "wise  man 
seeth  the  plague  when  it  cometh,  and  hideth  himself," 
so  they,  like  skilful  and  beaten  soldiers,  fearful  of  being 
surrounded  by  their  enemies,  unable  to  fight  or  fly, 
thought  it  better  to  dislodge  betimes  to  some  place  of 
better  advantage  and  less  danger,  if  any  such  could  be 
found. 

Thirdly ;  as  necessity  was  a  task-master  over  them,  so 
they  were  forced  to  be  such  to  their  servants  and  chil- 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  17 

dren,  which  did  not  only  wound  the  hearts  of  many  a 
loving  father  and  mother ;  so  it  produced  many  sad  and 
sorrowful  effects.  For  the  children,  although  willing 
to  bear  a  part  of  the  burthen  of  their  parents,  were 
oftentimes  so  oppressed  with  their  heavy  labors,  that, 
although  their  minds  were  free  and  willing,  yet  their 
bodies  became  decrepit  in  their  early  youth;  the  vigor 
of  nature  being  consumed,  as  it  were,  in  the  very  bud. 
But  what  was  more  lamentable,  and,  as  they  said,  of 
all  sorrows  most  heavy  to  be  borne,  was,  that  many  of 
their  children  were  drawn  away  by  evil  examples  of 
the  Dutch  into  dangerous  courses ;  some  becoming  sol- 
diers, others  taking  upon  them  far  voyages  by  sea,  or 
other  causes  tending  to  dissoluteness ;  so  that  they  saw 
that  their  posterity  would  be  in  danger  to  degenerate 
and  be  corrupted ;  wherefore,  considering  how  hard  the 
country  was  where  they  lived ;  how  many,  having  spent 
their  estate,  were  forced  to  return  to  England;  how 
grievous  it  was  to  live  from  under  the  protection  of 
the  State  of  England;  how  like  they  were  to  lose 
their  language  and  their  English  name;  how  unable 
they  were  to  give  to  their  children  such  education  as 
they  themselves  had  received — they  conceived  that  if 
God  would  be  pleased  to  discover  some  place  unto  them, 
even  though  in  America,  and  give  them  so  much  favor 
with  the  King  and  State  of  England  as  to  have  their 
protection  there,  where  they  might  enjoy  like  liberty, 
and  show  by  example,  their  tender  countrymen,  no  less 
burdened  than  themselves,  where  they  might  live  and 
comfortably  subsist,  free  from  anti-Christian  bondage, 
keeping  their  name  and  nation,  and  be  a  means,  not 
only  to  enlarge  the  dominions  of  their  native  State,  but 
the  Church  of  Christ  also;  they  thought  they  might 
more  glorify  God,  do  more  good  to  their  country,  better 
provide  for  their  posterity,  and  live  to  be  more  re- 


1 8     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

freshed  by  their  labors,  than  they  ever  could  in  Hol- 
land. And  last,  though  not  least,  to  use  their  own  lan- 
guage, "they  had  great  hope  and  inward  zeal  of  laying 
some  good  foundation  for  the  propagating  and  advanc- 
ing the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  in  those  re- 
mote parts  of  the  world." 

These  were  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  Pilgrims 
themselves  for  the  great  and  perilous  enterprise  of  ex- 
ploring and  settling  a  new  world.  Nor  let  it  be  thought 
that  the  dangers  to  be  encountered,  the  hardships  to  be 
endured,  and  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  were  not 
present  to  their  minds  and  imaginations.  "The  places 
upon  which  their  eyes  were  bent,"  says  Governor  Brad- 
ford, "were  some  of  those  unpeopled  countries  of  Amer- 
ica, which  are  fruitful  and  fit  for  habitation;  where 
there  were  only  savage  and  brutish  people,  which  range 
up  and  down,  little  otherwise  than  the  wild  beasts." 
But  when  these  propositions  were  made  public,  the 
doubting  were  alarmed  and  the  timid  dismayed,  alleg- 
ing things  neither  unreasonable  nor  improbable :  as  that 
it  was  a  great  design,  subject  to  inconceivable  perils 
and  dangers ;  then  the  length  of  the  voyage,  which  the 
weak  bodies  of  men  and  women,  bowed  down  by  age 
and  toil,  could  never  endure ;  the  miseries  also,  to  which 
they  would  be  exposed  in  the  new  found  country  from 
famine,  want  and  nakedness,  and  the  yet  greater  dan- 
gers among  a  people  represented  to  them  as  "barbarous, 
savage,  cruel  and  treacherous:  furious  in  their  rage, 
merciless  in  their  conquests :  not  content  to  take  away 
life  merely,  but  delighting  to  torment  men,  by  flaying 
them  alive,  and  broiling  them  on  coals."  And  surely, 
these  things  could  not  but  move  the  brave,  and  make 
the  timid  "to  quake  and  tremble."  To  these  were 
added,  the  precedents  of  ill  success  in  like  designs,  with 
the  remembrance  of  the  hardships  endured  in  Holland, 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  19 

upon  their  first  removal  thither.  For  the  abortive  at- 
tempts to  plant  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  were  well 
known  to  the  emigrants;  so  much  so,  that  they  were 
described  as  being  "like  the  habitations  of  the  foolish, 
cursed  before  they  had  taken  root." 

And  what  answer  could  be  given  to  objections  so 
obvious  and  formidable  ?  Who  could  observe  the  perils 
of  the  voyage,  and  yet  conceal  the  hardships  to  be  en- 
dured, or  chase  away  the  visions  of  hostile  savages  sur- 
rounding the  feeble  adventurers,  upon  their  first  land- 
ing? Nothing  like  this  was  attempted ;  but  in  bold  and 
manly  language  they  proclaimed  that  all  great  and  hon- 
orable actions  were  accompanied  by  difficulties,  and 
must  be  overcome  by  answerable  courage.  The  dan- 
gers were  admitted  to  be  great,  but  not  desperate;  the 
difficulties  many,  but  not  invincible;  and  that  all  of 
them,  through  the  help  of  God,  might  be  borne,  or  over- 
come, by  fortitude  and  patience. 

True  it  was,  that  such  attempts  were  not  to  be  made, 
but  upon  good  ground  and  reason;  not  rashly,  or 
lightly,  for  curiosity  or  the  hope  of  gain.  Their  ends, 
they  said,  were  good ;  their  calling  lawful  and  urgent ; 
and  therefore,  they  might  expect  the  blessing  of  God 
in  their  proceedings:  "yea,  although  they  should  lose 
their  lives  in  this  action,  yet  that  they  might  have  com- 
fort in  the  same,  and  their  endeavors  would  be  hon- 
orable." 

Honorable,  indeed,  were  their  endeavors ;  and  thrice 
honored  be  their  names  and  memories,  who  were  actu- 
ated by  such  high  purposes,  and  sustained  by  such  brave 
perseverance. 

It  will  be  observed  here,  with  what  natural  sim- 
plicity they  describe  their  feelings  and  disclose  their 
motives  of  action ;  and  among  them,  one,  not  the  least 
observable,  is  their  love  of  home,  language  and  coun- 


20     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

try !  That  mysterious  tie,  which  binds  men  to  the  land 
of  their  birth ;  that  innate  sympathy  with  the  accents  of 
our  early  days,  which  neither  time  nor  distance  can 
destroy;  that  yearning  after  kindred  associations, 
which  will  not  be  denied;  that  homesickness  of  the 
heart,  when  banished  from  the  scenes  of  its  youth  and 
affections,  which  not  even  the  great  Roman  orator 
could  endure;  these,  all  these,  are  most  observable  in 
the  character  and  feelings  of  our  ancestors. 

They  lived  in  Holland,  "as  men  in  exile  and  in  a 
poor  condition."  But  they  seem  to  have  felt  as  if  their 
banishment  were  removed,  if  again  they  could  be  placed 
in  connection  with  their  native  country,  and  under  the 
protection  of  its  power.  On  those  western  shores,  to 
which  they  had  turned  their  eyes,  they  would  be  objects 
of  solicitude  to  their  distant  friends  and  relatives. 
Subjects  of  the  same  king,  obedient  to  the  same  parlia- 
ment, they  would  be  Englishmen  still,  though  English- 
men in  a  distant  land.  Their  habitations  might  indeed 
be  changed,  but  their  country  would  remain  the  same. 
Exiles  no  more,  for  they  were  a  part  of  the  British  Em- 
pire; and  the  flag  which  floated  over  their  heads  was 
the  same  banner  which  had  waved  on  the  fields  of  their 
fathers'  fame.  "May  not,"  exclaims  Governor  Brad- 
ford, "and  ought  not,  the  children  of  these  fathers 
rightly  say,  'our  fathers  were  Englishmen  which  came 
over  the  great  ocean,  and  were  ready  to  perish  in  this 
wilderness'  ?" 

Our  ancestors  were  proud  of  their  nation,  and  they 
could  not  suffer  the  ties  which  bound  them  to  the  spot 
where  they  were  born  to  be  entirely  severed.  English- 
men by  birth;  Englishmen  they  would  live  and  die. 
The  sun,  when  he  rose,  came  from  their  native  land, 
and  had  warmed  its  soil  by  his  early  beams.  The  stars 
of  night  had  been  gazed  upon  by  them  under  the  broad 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          21 

canopy  of  heaven,  while  standing  by  the  doors  of  their 
fathers;  and  their  relatives  and  friends  in  a  far-distant 
land,  would  breathe  a  prayer  for  their  safety  and  suc- 
cess as  members  still  of  the  same  great  family ;  and  thus 
their  nationality  itself  would  be  preserved. 

Then  again,  the  language  of  their  youth  would  not 
be  forgotten  or  lost,  but  would  be  preserved  and  ex- 
tended far  and  wide,  over  new  and  boundless  regions; 
and  this,  too,  was  a  matter  of  pleasing  anxiety  to  them. 

And  which  of  us  of  New  England  origin,  now  here 
assembled,  is  there,  who  is  not  ready  to  thank  those 
wise  and  thoughtful  men,  for  the  great  gift  of  that 
noble  tongue,  in  which  our  mothers  first  taught  us  to 
speak?  Who  would  not  lament  if  it  had  been  con- 
founded and  lost  in  the  hard  jargon  of  Holland  ?  Who 
would  alter  it,  that  he  might  "babble  a  dialect  of 
France?"  Wrho  would  change  its  terse  and  manly  ac- 
cents for  the  soft  voice  of  Italy,  or  the  sonorous  periods 
of  Spain  ?  No ;  if  we — 


"Would  delight  our  private  hours 
With  music  or  with  poem,  where  so  soon 
As  in  our  native  language,  can  we  find 
That  solace?" 


Language  of  Shakspeare  and  of  Milton !  Language 
of  the  Pilgrims !  Having  sounded  its  loud  alarums  in 
the  great  cause  of  freedom  on  its  native  shores,  from 
the  tongues  of  Burke,  of  Fox,  and  of  Chatham,  it  has 
been  echoed  across  the  Atlantic  and  poured  out  in 
thunders  from  the  lips  of  Webster,  of  Clay,  and  Cal- 
houn!  Language  of  free-born  men!  It  has  fixed  its 
abode  upon  this  western  continent,  here  to  remain,  and 
advance,  and  spread  out,  until  its  voice  shall  have  been 
heard  in  every  valley  and  on  every  hill-top,  between  the 


22     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

rising  and  the  setting  sun.  Nor  shall  its  sounds  cease 
to  echo  and  vibrate  in  its  new  abode,  while  man  shall 
retain  the  power  of  self-government,  and  the  love  of 
liberty  be  cherished  in  his  bosom. 

Observe,  also,  the  great  forecast  of  our  ancestors  in 
their  anxiety  to  give  their  children  that  education 
which  should  fit  them  to  be  Englishmen,  speaking  the 
English  language,  protected  by  English  laws,  and  en- 
joying English  liberty.  All  these  were  precious  in 
their  eyes;  and  if  they  could  have  but  one  privilege 
more,  the  liberty  of  enjoying  the  forms  of  their  own 
religion  in  their  own  way;  then,  though  seas  were  put 
between  them  and  their  native  land,  they  were  no 
longer  exiles,  no  longer  wanderers  without  a  home, 
without  a  country. 

In  pursuance  of  this  design,  they  procured  the  prin- 
cipal Secretary  of  State,  "to  move  his  Majesty,  King 
James,  by  a  private  motion,  to  give  way  to  such  a  peo- 
ple, who  could  not  so  comfortably  live  under  the  gov- 
ernment of  another  State,  to  enjoy  their  liberty  of  con- 
science under  his  gracious  protection  in  America, 
where  they  would  endeavor  the  advancement  of  his 
Majesty's  dominions,  in  the  enlargement  of  the  Gos- 
pel by  all  due  means."  This,  his  Majesty  said  was  a 
good  and  honest  motive ;  and  asking  what  profits  might 
arise  in  the  part  they  intended  'twas  answered,  "fish- 
ing." To  which  he  replied  with  his  ordinary  assever- 
ation, "So  God  have  my  soul,  'tis  an  honest  trade,  'twas 
the  Apostles'  own  calling." 

Upon  this  hint,  for  the  pedantic  trifler  would  not  in 
plain  terms  grant  the  favor  thus  sought,  they  obtained 
from  the  Virginia  Company  that  patent,  which  fur- 
nished the  title  under  which  our  ancestors  undertook 
the  greatest  enterprise  in  the  annals  of  their  race. 

This  Company,  it  appears,  was  ready  to  grant  them 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          23 

a  patent  with  ample  privileges,  and  was  desirous  that 
they  should  undertake  the  expedition;  "but  the  King 
would  only  connive  at  them,"  says  Bradford;  "he 
would  not  molest  them  if  they  carried  themselves  peace- 
ably, but  he  would  not  tolerate  them,  by  public  author- 
ity, under  his  seal."  Although  not  satisfied  with  this 
Royal  manifestation  of  kindness,  they  concluded,  nev- 
ertheless, to  act  upon  it,  considering,  that  "if  there  was 
no  security  in  the  promise  thus  intimated,  there  would 
be  no  greater  certainty  in  a  further  confirmation  of  it. 
For  if  afterwards  there  should  be  a  purpose  or  desire 
to  wrong  them,  though  they  had  a  seal  as  broad  as  the 
house-floor,  it  would  not  serve  the  turn,  for  there  would 
be  means  enough  found  to  recall  or  reverse  it." 

With  these  resolutions,  and  under  this  title,  they 
embarked.  But  would  it  give  them  a  fair  right  to  take 
possession  of  lands  in  other  regions,  by  a  deed  from  a 
Company  which  had  itself  obtained  its  title  under  a 
grant  from  the  crown?  Upon  this  subject  you  must 
permit  me  to  make  a  few  remarks  in  defence  of  the 
first  settlers  of  New  England ;  as  their  occupation  of  a 
territory,  partially  in  possession  of  another  race,  has 
been  a  theme  for  much  reproach  upon  them,  and  their 
sense  of  justice. 

In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  observed,  that  at  the 
time  of  the  early  settlements,  it  was  the  universal  opin- 
ion among  Europeans,  that  the  discovery  of  a  new 
country  inhabited  by  races  of  uncivilized  men,  gave  to 
the  first  discoverers  an  inchoate  right  of  control  over 
it;  and  upon  this  foundation  lay  all  the  English, 
French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  grants. 

Indeed,  this  is  the  doctrine  of  modern  times,  and  has 
on  a  late  and  momentous  occasion,  been  the  subject  of 
critical  examination  by  two  powerful  nations,  almost 
in  the  attitude  of  war.  The  whole  controversy  con- 


24     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

earning  Oregon  turned  upon  the  question  of  discovery 
and  of  formal  possession,  for  neither  England,  nor 
Spain,  nor  the  United  States,  had  ever  occupied  the 
territory  to  any  considerable  extent.  Indeed,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  with  that  great 
jurist,  Judge  Marshall,  at  its  head,  decided  not  many 
years  ago,  that  all  our  land  titles  in  this  country,  are 
founded  upon  grants  made  by  the  nations  who  claimed 
to  have  been  the  first  discoverers,  and  not  upon  those 
issued  by  the  Pope,  with  a  liberal  hand,  to  his  Catholic 
children. 

The  Northern  Continent  of  America  was  discovered, 
as  you  all  well  know,  in  the  year  1497,  by  John  Cabot, 
a  Portuguese  mariner,  then  in  the  service  of  Henry  the 
VII.  of  England :  and  this  discovery  being  carried  out 
by  Gosnold,  Hudson  and  Smith,  enabled  the  English 
crown  to  claim  certain  portions  of  it,  as  subject  to  colo- 
nization and  grant,  agreeably  to  the  then  received  no- 
tions of  title.  Capt.  John  Smith,  of  famous  memory, 
having  in  the  year  1614,  ranged  along  the  coast  of  New 
England,  from  Penobscot  to  Cape  Cod,  formed  a  map 
of  the  country,  which  he  presented  to  King  James. 
The  impression  at  that  time,  and  for  a  considerable 
period  afterwards,  was,  that  this  part  of  the  country, 
so  full  of  unexplored  bays  and  jutting  headlands,  was 
an  island :  and  it  was  thought  to  resemble  the  mother 
country,  both  in  soil  and  climate,  so  much,  that  Smith 
bestowed  upon  it  the  name  of  New  England;  which 
name  Prince  Charles  afterwards  graciously  confirmed. 
The  country  itself  was  described  by  one  of  the  early 
writers,  as  being  like  England  in  many  particulars: 
somewhat  the  same  "for  heat  and  cold  in  summer  and 
winter,  champagne  ground,  but  not  high  mountainous ; 
full  of  vales  and  meadow  ground,  of  rivers  and  sweet 
springs,  as  England  is.  But  principally,  as  far  as  we 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  25 

can  yet  find,  it  is  an  island,  and  near  about  the  same 
quantity  of  England,  being  cut  out  from  the  mainland 
in  America,  as  England  is  from  the  main  of  Europe, 
by  a  great  arm  of  the  sea,  which  entereth  in  forty  de- 
grees, and  runneth  up  northwest  and  by  west,  and 
goeth  out  either  into  the  South  Sea  or  else  into  the  Bay 
of  Canada."  The  Indians  also  had  the  same  impres- 
sion, confidently  affirming  that  either  the  Dutch  or 
French  passed  through  from  sea  to  sea  between  Ply- 
mouth and  Virginia. 

"North  America,"  says  the  historian,  Hubbard,  "is, 
as  to  its  nativity,  of  the  same  standing  with  her  two 
elder  sisters,  Peru  and  Mexico,  yet  was  suffered  to  lie 
in  its  swaddling-clothes  one  whole  century  of  years; 
nature  having  promised  no  such  dowry  of  rich  mines 
of  silver  and  gold  to  them  who  would  espouse  her  for 
their  own,  as  she  did  unto  the  other  two;  which  pos- 
sibly was  the  reason  why  she  was  not  so  hastily  courted 
by  her  first  discoverers." 

For  more  than  a  century,  then,  after  the  first  discov- 
ery of  the  Northern  continent,  and  for  a  like  period 
after  its  whole  coast  had  been  traced,  from  Newfound- 
land to  the  southern  point  of  Florida,  the  territory  of 
what  is  now  called  New  England  remained  almost  un- 
touched by  the  foot  of  European  adventure.  The  cu- 
pidity of  mankind  was  not  tempted  to  invade  her  neg- 
lected shores,  by  mines  of  gold,  or  treasures  of  silver. 
The  silent  forests  threaded  only  by  their  wild  and 
aboriginal  inhabitants,  were  untrodden  by  the  armed 
heel  of  the  Spanish  warrior,  who  had  long  before 
scaled  the  Andes,  red  with  the  blood  of  conquest ;  unas- 
sailed  by  the  adventurous  Portuguese,  who  had  dou- 
bled the  Cape  of  Good  Hope;  and  disregarded  by  that 
monarch  who  had  furnished  Cabot  with  the  means  of 
pointing  out  this  wide  country  to  Europe. 


26     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

It  is  not  perhaps  expedient,  or  profitable,  to  go  back 
to  abstract  theories  as  to  the  rights  of  possession;  free, 
absolute  and  exclusive  possession,  which  belonged  to 
those  who  occupied,  and  from  time  immemorial  had 
occupied  the  soil  upon  which  we  now  stand.  But  it 
has  always  seemed  to  me  a  question  in  morals,  not  al- 
together clear,  that  bands  of  roaming  savages  have  a 
right,  to  shut  from  the  sun  all  the  joyful  fruits  of  the 
earth,  that  beasts  of  chase  may  lie  forever  secluded  in 
the  depth  of  their  boundless  forests. — If  this  were  an 
original  question,  I  confess  that  the  axe  of  the  wood- 
man would  ring  on  my  ears  as  pleasantly  as  the  war- 
whoop  of  the  savage.  The  quiet  villages  of  New  Eng- 
land seem  to  me  now  as  beautiful,  and  as  becoming  to 
the  fair  face  of  nature,  as  the  wigwams  of  the  Indians. 
The  spires  of  churches  pointing  upwards  to  heaven,  as 
if  to  invite  our  contemplations  thither,  also  appear  in 
my  eyes,  objects  quite  as  worthy  of  regard,  as  the  vic- 
tim bound  to  the  stake,  and  surrounded  by  tortures 
intended  to  tempt  the  endurance  of  his  steadfast  soul. 

The  deep  solitude  of  the  forest  fills  the  human  mind 
with  gloomy  thoughts  and  dark  imaginings.  Was  it 
intended  by  the  God  of  nature  that  this  silence  should 
remain  forever  unbroken?  That  these  recesses  should 
never  be  penetrated?  That  the  beams  of  a  glorious 
luminary,  should  never  dispel  the  pestilential  vapor 
from  the  swamp,  or  warm  the  generous  soil  into  pro- 
lific and  life-supporting  returns  for  its  cultivation  and 
improvement?  Was  it  destined  by  Providence,  that 
ignorance  should  always  prevail  in  the  boundless  re- 
gions of  America  and  that  she  alone,  of  all  the  world, 
should  be  shut  out  from  the  blessings  of  civilization, 
and  all  the  aspirations  of  hope  in  the  ennobling  forms 
presented  by  the  Christian  faith?  Had  the  native  In- 
dian such  an  exclusive  right,  in  a  moral  point  of  view, 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  27 

to  the  possession  and  occupancy  of  millions  of  acres, 
not  required  by  his  necessities,  merely  because  he  hap- 
pened to  be  upon  the  soil  when  it  was  first  seen  by  the 
adventurous,  yet  civilized  European  ?  Could  the  suffer- 
ing thousands  of  Ireland  and  Germany  be,  at  this  time, 
with  justice  excluded  by  the  natives  from  a  participa- 
tion in  the  blessings  and  enjoyments  which  may  be 
afforded  by  the  unoccupied  wastes  of  this  vast  conti- 
nent? Was  a  country  capable  of  sustaining  millions 
of  human  beings  in  comfort  and  competency,  to  be 
restricted  to  the  use  of  a  few  thousands  of  savages, 
dressed  in  skins,  and  roaming  over  their  broad  lands, 
in  pursuit  of  the  deer,  the  beaver,  and  the  buffalo  ? 

It  seems  to  me,  there  is  no  law  of  morals,  no  rule  of 
right,  no  command  of  religion,  according  to  any  form 
or  manner  of  belief, — which  does  or  can  assert,  or 
maintain,  any  such  title  to  an  absolute,  exclusive,  ad- 
verse possession,  on  the  part  of  the  aborigines.  They 
had  claims,  beyond  doubt,  which  were  to  be  respected 
and  upheld.  They  could  not,  with  any  show  of  jus- 
tice, be  driven  altogether  from  the  graves  of  their  fa- 
thers; but  our  ancestors  could  fairly  claim  a  right  to 
participate  in  that  occupancy  which  the  Creator  in- 
tended for  all  his  creatures.  The  hunter  state  was  not 
that  which  was  originally  established  for  man;  and  it 
was  only  when  he  had  fallen  and  become  degenerate, 
that,  assimilating  himself  to  the  tiger  and  wolf,  man 
became  himself  a  prowling  beast  of  prey.  No!  These 
fair  regions  were  not  destined  for  eternal  solitudes. 
Savages  with  their  victims  were  not  to  occupy,  exclu- 
sively and  forever,  the  thousand  hills  of  the  cattle,  and 
all  the  pleasant  valleys  of  the  husbandman.  A  better 
and  a  nobler  use  was  reserved  for  them.  Ignorance 
was  to  be  banished  before  the  face  of  civilization;  the 
ferocity  of  the  untamed  hunter,  was  to  be  softened 


28     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

down  by  the  combined  influence  of  knowledge  and  reli- 
gion; the  trees  of  the  forest  were  to  give  place  to  the 
olive  and  the  vine ;  the  rose  was  to  blush  and  the  violet 
to  bloom  where  the  briar  and  the  thorn  claimed  occu- 
pation; and  the  fair  face  of  nature  was  to  shine  out  in 
all  that  beauty  for  which  it  was  originally  created. 

"God,"  said  our  ancestors,  "had  brought  a  vine  into 
this  wilderness;  had  cast  out  the  heathen  and  planted 
it;  and  had  also  made  room  for  it;  and  he  caused  it  to 
take  root,  and  it  filled  the  land ;  so  that  it  had  sent  forth 
its  boughs  to  the  sea,  and  its  branches  to  the  river." 

But  irrespective  of  such  considerations,  the  first  set- 
tlers of  New  England  were  always  regardful  of  the 
rights  of  the  natives  and  endeavored  upon  all  occasions 
to  protect  them  in  their  just  privileges,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  restrained  their  ferocity,  and  checked 
their  aggressions.  It  is  well  known  to  you  all,  as  a 
matter  of  familiar  history,  that  antecedently  to  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Mayflower  at  Plymouth,  the  whole  coun- 
try, bordering  upon  that  coast,  and  extending  far  in- 
land, had  been  so  desolated  by  a  pestilence  that  it  was 
nearly,  if  not  quite  depopulated;  and  it  was  several 
months  after  their  first  landing  at  Cape  Cod,  before  the 
Pilgrims  had  an  opportunity  of  speaking  with  Samo- 
set,  the  first  native  with  whom  they  held  parley.  He 
informed  them  that  about  four  years  before  their  ar- 
rival, all  the  inhabitants  of  that  vicinity  had  died  of  an 
extraordinary  disease,  and  that  there  was  "neither  man, 
nor  woman,  nor  child  remaining."  "Indeed,"  says  an 
early  writer,  "we  found  none;  so,  there  was  none  to 
hinder  our  possession,  or  lay  claim  unto  it." 

The  great  patent,  issued  by  King  James,  in  1620, 
recites  that  he  had  been  given  certainly  to  know,  that 
the  country  about  to  be  occupied  had  been  depopulated, 
so  that  there  was  not  left,  for  many  leagues  together, 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          29 

any  that  did  claim  or  challenge  any  interest  therein; 
and  therefore,  says  the  Charter,  it  was  supposed  that 
the  appointed  time  was  come,  "that  those  large  and 
goodly  territories,  deserted  as  it  were,  by  their  natural 
inhabitants,  should  be  possessed  and  enjoyed  by  such 
as  should,  by  the  powerful  arm  of  God,  be  directed  and 
conducted  thither."  And  the  grant  was  made  in  terms, 
for  "the  enlargement  of  the  Christian  religion,  to 
stretch  out  the  bounds  of  the  king's  dominions,  and  to 
replenish  those  deserts  with  people,  governed  by  laws, 
and  for  the  more  peaceable  commerce  of  all,  who 
should  have  occasion  to  traffic  in  those  territories." 

It  seems  that  the  country  lying  between  Plymouth 
and  the  great  Narragansett  Bay,  was  under  the  juris- 
diction and  sway  of  Mas-sas-so-it,  Sachem  of  the 
Wampanoags,  a  tribe  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  Mount 
Hope,  and  chief  ruler  also  of  all  the  nations  who  dwelt 
between  that  Bay  and  the  sea. 

This  chief  went  to  Plymouth,  (which  was  then 
called  Patuxet  by  the  Indians,)  on  the  22d  of  March, 
1621,  with  a  band  of  sixty  armed  men  to  meet  the 
newly  arrived  strangers.  They  saluted  him  with 
words  of  love  from  King  James,  desiring  to  traffic,  and 
make  a  firm  peace  with  the  chief,  as  their  next  neigh- 
bor. This  communication  was  well  received  by  the 
savage  monarch ;  and  thereupon  a  treaty  of  six  articles 
was  entered  into  between  the  Pilgrims  and  Massassoit ; 
which  was  kept  with  good  faith,  on  both  sides,  during 
his  whole  life.  Indeed,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
discover,  the  first  settlers  of  Plymouth,  of  Massachu- 
setts, of  Connecticut,  New  Haven  and  Rhode  Island, 
never  did  usurp  any  claim  of  title  to  the  Indian  lands, 
without  their  free  consent,  manifested  either  by  gift  or 
purchase. 

It  is  true  that  the  considerations  paid,  may  seem  in- 


30     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

considerable,  estimating  land  by  its  present  value;  but 
when  one  Englishman  sold  to  another,  one  fourth 
part  of  a  common  sized  township,  for  a  wheelbarrow, 
you  may  readily  imagine  that  land  was  in  no  special 
estimation  with  the  indolent  native,  who  deemed  all 
employment  in  its  cultivation  to  be  below  the  dignity 
of  a  warrior,  and  fit  only  for  women. 

The  grantees  under  the  New  Plymouth  patent  were 
expressly  instructed  by  the  Company,  if  the  savages 
claimed  any  right  of  inheritance,  to  obtain  their  title 
by  purchase ;  that  "the  least  scruple  of  intrusion  might 
be  avoided."  And  in  1676,  after  the  war  with  King 
Philip  began,  Governor  Winslow  of  Plymouth,  openly 
asserted,  that  before  those  troubles  broke  out,  the  Eng- 
lish did  not  possess  one  foot  of  land  in  that  Colony, 
but  what  was  fairly  obtained  by  honest  purchase,  from 
the  Indian  proprietors.  "We  found,"  says  Cushman, 
"the  place  where  we  lived  empty;  the  people  being  all 
dead  and  gone  away,  and  none  living  near  by  eight  or 
ten  miles ;  and  though,  in  time  of  hardship,  we  found 
some  eight  bushels  of  corn  hid  up  in  a  cave,  and  knew 
no  owners  of  it,  yet,  afterwards  learning  of  the  owners, 
we  gave  them,  in  their  estimation,  double  the  value  of 
it.  Our  care  also,  hath  been  to  maintain  peace  amongst 
them,  and  we  have  always  set  ourselves  against  such  of 
them  as  used  any  rebellion  or  treachery  against  their 
own  governors ;  and  when  any  of  them  are  in  want,  as 
often  they  are,  in  the  winter,  when  their  corn  is  done, 
we  supply  them  to  our  power,  and  have  them  in  our 
houses,  eating  and  drinking,  and  warming  themselves ; 
which  thing,  though  it  be  something  a  trouble  to  us, 
yet  because  they  should  see  and  take  knowledge  of  our 
labors,  order  and  diligence,  both  for  this  life  and  a 
better,  we  are  content  to  bear  it." 

The  people  of  Plymouth  procured  titles  to  the  land 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          31 

occupied  by  them  from  Massassoit,  who  claimed  it  all 
as  his  own,  and  that  he  alone  had  a  right  to  dispose  of 
it;  and  it  was  from  him  and  his  sons  that  the  first 
grants  were  obtained.  "It  is  mine,"  said  he,  "and 
mine  is  the  sole  claim  in  existence."  But  his  chiefs 
gave  their  assent  also,  and  signed  deeds,  on  several  oc- 
casions. Neither  was  this  accomplished,  says  Winslow, 
"by  threats  and  blows,  or  shaking  of  sword,  or  sound 
of  trumpet;  for  as  our  faculty  that  way  is  small,  and 
our  strength  less,  so  our  warring  with  them  is  after  an- 
other manner,  namely,  by  friendly  usage,  love,  peace, 
honest  carriage,  and  good  counsel." 

Indeed,  this  objection  to  the  occupancy  of  the  coun- 
try by  the  first  settlers,  is  as  old  as  their  pilgrimage, 
and  was  met  and  answered  by  them,  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Cushman,  in  his  reasons  for  removing  from 
England  to  America,  given  in  1621,  states  expressly, 
that  he  does  not  put  the  right  of  colonization  upon  that 
of  discovery,  which  was  then  assumed  by  all  nations  as 
the  foundation  of  title ;  on  the  contrary,  after  mention- 
ing that  claim,  he  passes  it  by,  "lest  he  should  be 
thought  to  meddle  with  that  which  did  not  concern  him, 
or  was  beyond  his  discerning ;"  and  he  places  "the  right 
to  live  in  the  heathen's  country,"  upon  the  hope  of  their 
conversion,  and  the  unoccupied  condition  of  the  coun- 
try, where  "its  few  inhabitants  only  ran  over  the  grass 
like  the  foxes  and  wild  beasts,  without  industry,  art, 
science,  skill,  or  faculty  to  use  the  land."  Then  again, 
he  asserts  an  express  grant  from  Massassoit,  with 
divers  of  his  chiefs,  "which  was  obtained,"  says  he,  "by 
friendly  composition."  Indeed,  the  people  of  Ply- 
mouth never  did,  until  after  Philip's  war,  claim  or  ob- 
tain any  lands  belonging  to  the  Indians,  by  violence  or 
conquest.  After  the  defeat  and  dispersion  of  the  Wam- 
panoags,  fifty-six  years  after  the  first  settlement,  then, 


32     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

and  not  till  then,  were  the  lands  occupied  by  them, 
sequestrated  by  the  conquerors,  for  the  benefit  of 
wounded  soldiers,  and  those  who  had  been  ruined  by 
the  desolations  of  that  fierce  contest. 

And  so,  too,  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  and 
Rhode  Island ;  their  titles  were  all  derived  by  deeds  and 
grants  from  the  Indians.  In  the  year  1631,  before  the 
country  between  Boston  and  Hartford  had  been  ex- 
plored, a  chief  living  near  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut, 
made  a  journey  to  Plymouth  and  Boston,  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  inviting  a  settlement  on  that  river. 
He  described  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  promised,  if 
the  English  would  make  a  plantation  there,  he  would 
annually  supply  them  with  beaver  skins  and  corn.  His 
object  was,  amongst  other  things,  to  obtain  their  pro- 
tection against  the  Pequots,  the  most  fierce  and  warlike 
of  the  Indian  tribes;  and  when  the  settlements  were 
afterwards  begun  upon  the  Connecticut,  the  Indian  title 
was  extinguished  in  every  case  by  their  own  free  and 
voluntary  consent,  without  violence  or  fraud  on  the 
part  of  the  whites.  Indeed  this  could  not  well  be  other- 
wise, for  until  the  subjugation  of  the  Pequots,  in  the 
year  1637,  the  settlers  had  no  power  to  coerce  the  In- 
dians, being  themselves  but  a  feeble  band,  constantly 
occupied  in  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  for  the  means 
of  subsistence.  And  this  led  them,  as  a  matter  of  neces- 
sity rather  than  choice,  to  seek  the  banks  of  rivers 
which  were  comparatively  free  from  trees,  and  better 
prepared  to  receive  the  plough  than  the  hill-sides  and 
the  plains.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1636,  there  were 
not  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  towns 
planted  upon  the  river;  and  hence,  it  would  have  been 
madness  to  practise  either  fraud  or  violence  upon  the 
natives,  who  were  infinitely  superior  to  the  settlers, 
both  in  numbers  and  power. 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  33 

And  as  the  plantations  extended,  so  in  every  case  did 
the  colonists  begin  their  labors  by  purchases  of  the  land 
from  the  native  occupants,  giving  fair  and  satisfactory 
equivalents  in  return.  If  the  title  of  the  savage  to  his 
native  soil  was  ever  disregarded,  it  was  not  by  the  first 
settlers,  or  their  descendants.  On  the  contrary,  when 
in  1687,  the  charters  granted  to  the  colonists  had  been 
vacated  by  the  British  Crown,  and  the  title  of  the 
planters  derided,  they  put  themselves  expressly  upon 
the  grants  furnished  by  the  natives  themselves.  But 
Andros,  with  the  haughty  insolence  of  delegated  power, 
declared  that  Indian  deeds  were  no  better  than  "the 
scratch  of  a  bear's  paw;"  and  the  occupants  were  ac- 
tually compelled,  in  many  instances,  to  take  out  new 
patents  for  their  own  lands  at  a  heavy  charge.  I  think, 
therefore,  that  we  may  challenge  the  world  to  show  one 
instance  where  our  ancestors  usurped  a  title  to  the  land 
of  the  Indians,  or  unjustly  expelled  them  from  it.  On 
the  contrary,  their  claims  were  always  conceded  and  re- 
spected; and  while  the  right  to  colonize  was  asserted, 
the  title  of  the  occupant  of  the  soil  was  never  over- 
looked or  disregarded. 

In  this  connection  we  may  observe  also,  that  it  has 
not  unfrequently  been  made  a  subject  of  charge  against 
the  first  settlers  of  New  England,  that  they  were  op- 
pressive and  unjust  towards  the  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
not  only  in  respect  of  their  lands,  but  also  in  their  per- 
sonal and  political  relations ;  that  if  they  did  not  openly 
assail  the  natives  with  violence,  they  tempted  them, 
nevertheless,  to  deeds  of  outrage,  that  a  pretext  might 
be  afforded  for  their  destruction.  Poetry  has  given 
her  aid  to  this  subject;  and  the  most  beautiful  writer 
New  York  has  yet  produced,  has  pursued  the  theme 
with  all  the  powers  of  genius  and  eloquence,  in  his 
essays  on  this  vanished  race.  Carried  away  by  the 


34     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

fervor  of  this  author's  imagination,  one  might  suppose 
that  our  ancestors  were  little  better  than  a  band  of 
lawless  plunderers,  who  trampled  down  the  rights  of 
the  natives,  spoiling  them  of  their  homes,  and  devastat- 
ing their  country.  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  has  furnished 
a  subject,  not  only  for  the  resistless  power  of  Mr.  Irv- 
ing's  description,  but  for  the  poetic  imaginings  of 
Sands  and  of  Eastburn;  and  the  last  of  this  kingly  race 
is  clothed  with  all  the  savage  virtues  of  a  Homeric 
hero. 

Such  sketches  are  the  work  of  fancy,  not  of  histor- 
ical truth  and  accuracy;  for  it  may  be  asserted  with 
entire  confidence,  that  for  more  than  half  a  century 
after  the  arrival  of  the  Mayflower,  the  Pilgrims  and 
their  descendants  lived  in  peace  and  friendship  with 
the  natives,  undisturbed  by  outbreaks  or  lawless  ag- 
gressions. When  Massassoit  was  ill,  and  thought  to 
be  dying,  about  three  years  after  the  first  landing  of 
the  emigrants,  Mr.  Winslow  was  sent  by  the  colony  to 
pay  him  a  visit  at  his  royal  residence,  near  Mount 
Hope.  In  the  kindest  manner  this  friendly  messenger 
administered  to  his  wants,  and  finally  by  his  skill  and 
attention  restored  him  to  health.  In  grateful  recollec- 
tion of  this,  Massassoit  disclosed  to  the  Plymouth  Col- 
ony an  intention  on  the  part  of  the  Massachusetts  In- 
dians to  cut  them  off  by  a  secret  attack.  At  one  time 
when  Massassoit  was  invaded  in  his  own  country,  and 
hard  beset  by  the  Narragansetts,  he  was  relieved  by  the 
English;  the  enemy  upon  their  approach,  retiring  to 
their  own  country  without  resistance.  After  the  death 
of  this  chief,  his  two  sons,  Wamsutta  and  Metacomet, 
named  by  the  English  at  their  own  request,  Alexander 
and  Philip,  went  voluntarily  to  Plymouth  to  renew  the 
ancient  league  of  friendship  between  the  two  nations 
and  pledge  again  their  faith,  fidelity  and  obedience  to 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          35 

the  English;  and  for  twenty  years  after  the  death  ot 
Massassoit,  peace  was  preserved  between  the  parties. 
The  same  remarks  which  have  been  made  with  regard 
to  the  Pokanokets,  are  equally  true  when  applied  to  the 
Narragansetts, — who  for  the  same  length  of  time  re- 
mained at  peace  with  the  plantations  of  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  Plymouth,  and  Massachusetts. 

During  all  this  period  it  was  doubtless  the  policy  of 
the  first  settlers  as  well  as  their  wish,  to  preserve  pacific 
relations  with  their  uncivilized  neighbors.  But  this 
was  not  done  by  any  poor  or  fawning  submission  in 
their  weakness,  to  superior  power.  Their  conduct  was 
always  open,  bold  and  manly. 

Canonicus  the  great  chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  man- 
ifested some  jealousy  of  the  new  comers  shortly  after 
their  arrival,  but  chiefly  because  of  the  friendly  rela- 
tions which  existed  between  them  and  his  old  enemies 
of  Mount  Hope.  But  our  fathers  knew  full  well  how 
to  deal  with  the  savage,  whether  he  came  with  the  salu- 
tations of  peace,  or  the  war-whoop  of  his  race.  Early 
in  the  year  1622,  a  messenger  from  Canonicus  arrived 
at  Plymouth,  charged  with  a  gift,  at  once  significant 
and  dangerous,  "a  bundle  of  new  arrows,  lapped  in  a 
rattlesnake's  skin."  This  messenger  was  at  first  de- 
tained, but  being  considered  as  a  mere  herald  from  his 
master,  Governor  Bradford  ordered  him  to  be  dis- 
missed with  bold  threats,  "daring  them  to  do  their 
worst;"  and  when  informed  by  his  interpreter  that  the 
rattlesnake's  skin  and  arrows  portended  war  and  deso- 
lation, the  intrepid  governor  stuffed  the  skin  with  pow- 
der and  shot,  and  sent  it  back  to  Canonicus  with  the 
like  defiance.  "This  message,"  says  Winslow,  "was 
sent  by  an  Indian,  and  delivered  in  such  sort  as  was  no 
small  terror  to  this  savage  king,  inasmuch  as  he  would 
not  once  touch  the  powder  and  shot,  or  suffer  it  to  stay 


36     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

in  his  house  or  country;  whereupon  the  messenger  re- 
fusing it,  another  took  it  up,  and  having  been  posted 
back  from  place  to  place  a  long  time,  at  length  came 
whole  back  again." 

Upon  the  death  of  Alexander,  in  1662,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  Philip,  the  renowned  Metacomet, 
the  hero  of  song  and  of  story.  This  chief  early  began 
to  scheme  for  the  entire  destruction  of  his  white  neigh- 
bors, although  he  could  not  bring  a  well-founded  com- 
plaint to  justify  such  cold-blooded  atrocity;  for  if  he 
or  his  nation  had  suffered  any  wrongs  from  the  ag- 
gressions of  the  settlers,  they  were  neither  deep  or  wan- 
ton, nor  were  they  such  as  could  in  any  degree  justify 
such  fell  and  savage  revenge.  But  the  fact  was  not 
so.  The  English  of  Plymouth  early  perceiving  an  im- 
provident temper  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  and  a  de- 
sire to  alienate  their  lands,  passed  laws  to  prohibit  such 
traffic  with  them,  and  secured  to  the  Wampanoags  and 
their  descendants,  all  the  fine  country  in  the  vicinity  of 
Mount  Hope;  those  lands  and  waters  being  peculiarly 
well  suited  to  their  condition;  the  lands  as  corn  land, 
and  the  waters  abounding  in  fish  and  fowl.  Nay,  fur- 
ther, to  prevent  encroachments,  the  inhabitants  on  their 
northern  frontier  drew  a  strong  fence  from  the  Taun- 
ton  river  entirely  across  the  border,  to  prevent  their 
cattle  from  straying  into  the  Indian  possessions. 

Fiction  has  given  to  Metacomet  an  interest  which  he, 
in  my  judgment,  in  no  wise  deserves,  either  from  his 
acts  or  personal  character.  It  is  true,  by  dissimulation 
and  art,  he  drew  all  the  neighboring  tribes,  including 
the  Narragansetts,  his  old  enemies,  into  a  general  and 
deep-laid  plot  for  the  total  annihilation  of  the  white 
race.  Being  suspected  and  charged  with  it,  he  never- 
theless solemnly  denied  all  hostile  intent,  until  the  mo- 
ment came  when  he  could  let  loose  his  fierce  warriors 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  37 

upon  the  midnight  slumbers  of  the  settlers,  rousing 
them  to  a  hasty  defence  by  the  glare  of  their  burning 
dwellings.  The  war  being  begun,  and  by  the  Indians 
themselves,  was  pursued  by  our  brave  ancestors  with 
all  that  constancy  for  which  they  were  so  remarkable, 
until  Philip,  by  his  death,  expiated  a  portion  of  the 
bloody  wrongs  he  had  inflicted  upon  his  neighbors. 
He  plunged  his  nation  into  all  the  perils  of  war,  but  did 
not  himself,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  encounter  its  dan- 
gers, for  he  was  never  seen  in  battle  by  any  white  man, 
from  the  commencement  of  his  murders  down  to  the 
time  when  he  was  slain.  Indeed  he  was  always  the 
first,  says  Captain  Church,  to  fly  in  every  engagement ; 
and  that  brave  officer,  in  laying  the  plan  for  Philip's 
final  surprise  in  the  swamps  of  Mount  Hope,  acted 
upon  this  well-known  habit,  and  bade  his  men  shoot 
the  first  savage  who  silently  fled,  expecting  thereby  to 
secure  the  death  of  this  relentless  sachem;  and  his  an- 
ticipations were  all  fulfilled;  for  when  the  attack  was 
commenced,  Philip,  starting  at  the  first  gun,  rushed 
headlong  from  his  concealment,  and  was  slain  by  one 
of  his  own  nation  in  his  cowardly  flight.  How  differ- 
ent was  the  conduct  of  his  followers.  One  had  openly 
called  him,  before  the  war  began,  "a  white  livered  cur;" 
and  in  the  last  battle  ever  witnessed  by  the  mortal  eyes 
of  Philip,  his  men  stood  their  ground,  so  cheered  on 
by  the  war-cries  of  one  of  their  chiefs,  that  Captain 
Church,  attracted  by  his  bold  conduct,  asked  an  inter- 
preter who  that  sachem  was,  and  what  he  said.  "It  is 
old  Annawan,"  replied  the  Indian,  "Philip's  great  cap- 
tain, calling  on  his  soldiers  to  stand  to  it  and  fight 
stoutly." 

Remember,  then,  that  the  settlers  of  New  England 
had  lived  with  their  aboriginal  neighbors  in  peace  and 
friendship  for  more  than  fifty  years  before  the  great 


38     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

war  began ;  and  those  relations  might  have  been  main- 
tained for  ever,  if  the  nations  could  have  restrained  the 
ferocity  of  their  passions,  or  subdued  their  thirst  for 
blood ;  for  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  complaints  made 
by  the  Indians  themselves,  were  not  causes  of  war, 
even  according  to  their  own  wild  and  savage  notions. 
It  may  be  that  they  would  have  melted  away  before  the 
plough  and  the  sickle ;  but  they  would  have  gone  peace- 
fully, and  in  the  order  of  nature.  The  desolation  of 
savage  life  cannot  stand  before  the  improvements  of 
civilization ;  and  blessed  be  God  that  it  cannot ! 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  vindicate  the  conduct  of  the 
first  colonists  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  in  relation  to 
their  contest  with  the  Pequots,  in  the  year  1637,  as  it  is 
universally  admitted  that  the  fault  of  that  war  lay  en- 
tirely on  the  side  of  that  fierce  nation.  The  early  emi- 
grants to  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Weathersfield,  had 
never  encroached  in  any  respect  upon  the  territory  of 
the  Pequots,  whose  country  lay  on  both  sides  of  the 
Thames,  far  from  the  scenes  of  those  early  settlements ; 
and  this  proud  tribe  seems  to  have  commenced  hostile 
attacks  upon  their  distant  neighbors,  from  the  mere 
thirst  of  blood,  natural  to  barbarians  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe.  They  had  murdered  about  thirty  persons  be- 
fore the  towns  on  the  Connecticut  attempted  any  resist- 
ance; but  finding  themselves  at  last  in  a  most  critical 
position,  and  driven  to  the  necessity  of  venturing  upon 
a  contest  for  the  preservation  of  their  lives,  they  en- 
tered into  it  with  all  the  fortitude  and  courage  of  their 
heroic  race.  Raising  a  little  force  of  ninety  men,  they 
sent  them  in  three  small  vessels,  under  the  brave  Cap- 
tain Mason,  by  the  way  of  the  river  and  sound  to  the 
Narragansett  Bay.  Disembarking  there,  and  trusting 
to  savages  for  their  guides,  the  stars  of  heaven  for  their 
canopy,  the  brooks  and  woods  for  their  supplies,  they 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  39 

traversed  the  whole  territory  of  the  Narragansetts,  and 
approached  the  barbarians  with  such  caution  and  celer- 
ity, as  to  take  them  entirely  by  surprise  in  their  fort, 
upon  the  west  side  of  the  Mystic  river.  Then  ensued 
a  struggle,  not  merely  for  victory,  but  life  itself,  for  if 
the  attack  had  failed,  there  was  no  retreat  for  this  band 
of  devoted  men;  no  escape  from  their  merciless  foes. 
But  putting  their  trust  in  the  God  of  battles,  they 
charged  directly  upon  seven  times  their  numbers,  with 
such  determined  impetuosity  as  to  give  the  Pequots  an 
overthrow  from  which  they  never  recovered ;  and  from 
that  time  forth  the  colony  of  Connecticut  remained  in 
peace  with  all  the  native  tribes,  until  the  great  con- 
spiracy of  Philip  called  them  forth  again  with  spear 
and  shield,  in  their  own  just  defence. 

In  this  contest  with  the  Pequots,  the  early  settlers 
exhibited  all  their  peculiar  characteristics.  Before  their 
departure,  Mr.  Hooker  addressed  the  little  army  with 
that  confidence  in  an  overruling  Providence,  which 
never  on  any  occasion  had  deserted  them.  "Fellow  sol- 
diers!" said  he,  "countrymen,  and  companions,  in  this 
wilderness  work,  who  are  gathered  together  this  day 
by  the  inevitable  providence  of  the  Great  Jehovah,  not 
in  a  tumultuous  manner,  hurried  on  by  the  floating 
fancy  of  every  hot-headed  brain,  but  purposely  picked 
out  by  the  godly  great  fathers  of  this  government,  that 
your  prowess  may  carry  out  the  work  where  justice  in 
her  righteous  course  is  obstructed.  Every  common  sol- 
dier among  you  is  now  installed  a  magistrate.  Then 
show  yourselves  men  of  courage ;  yet  remember  that  all 
true  bred  soldiers  receive  this  as  a  common  maxim: 
cruelty  and  cowardice  are  inseparable  companions. 
And  now  to  you  I  put  the  question,  who  would  not 
fight  in  such  a  cause  with  an  agile  spirit  and  undaunted 
boldness  ? — Riches  and  honor  are,  next  to  a  good  cause, 


40     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

eyed  by  every  soldier;  but  although  gold  and  silver  be 
wanting,  yet  have  you  that  to  maintain  which  is  far 
more  precious,  the  lives,  liberties,  and  new  purchased 
freedoms  of  the  endeared  servants  of  our  Lord  Christ 
Jesus,  and  of  your  second  selves  even,  your  affectionate 
bosom  mates,  together  with  the  chief  pledges  of  your 
loves,  the  comforting  contents  of  harmless  prattling 
and  smiling  babes;  in  a  word,  all  the  riches  of  that 
goodness  and  mercy  that  attends  the  people  of  God 
even  in  this  life."  Actuated  by  such  motives,  impelled 
forward  by  such  considerations,  sustained  by  such  pur- 
poses, how  could  the  early  colonists  of  New  England 
fail  in  their  enterprises  ? 

After  the  first  struggles  for  mere  existence  on  the 
part  of  the  settlers  were  over,  view  them  marching 
steadily  forward  in  the  paths  of  order,  religion  and 
morality;  enacting  laws,  constructing  roads,  establish- 
ing schools,  and  educating  their  children  for  the  new 
business  of  self-government.  The  colonies,  it  is  true, 
were  under  the  general  jurisdiction  of  the  king  and  par- 
liament, yet  having  by  their  charters  the  power  of  mak- 
ing laws,  they  entered  at  once  upon  these  important 
concerns ;  and  perceiving  that  their  institutions  were  to 
be  unlike  all  others  in  the  world,  they  immediately  be- 
gan to  frame  statutes  suited  to  their  peculiar  wants. 
Having  been  subject  to  the  common  law,  and  being 
well  skilled  in  its  maxims,  they  adopted  such  portions 
of  it  as  were  suited  to  their  circumstances,  but  dis- 
carded, in  effect,  such  English  statutes  as  were  not  ap- 
plicable to  their  new  condition ;  publishing  at  the  same 
time,  in  one  of  the  colonies,  this  preface  to  their  own 
enactments :  "Now  in  these  our  laws,  although  we  may 
seem  to  vary  or  differ,  yet  it  is  not  our  purpose  to 
repugn  the  statute  laws  of  England,  so  far  as  we  under- 
stand them ;"  thereby  exhibiting,  perhaps  the  first  great 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          41 

example  of  construing  a  constitution,  as  each  man  may 
comprehend  it. 

They  were  not  bound  down  to  a  servile  imitation  of 
British  precedents,  but  considered  the  law  in  the  ab- 
stract as  containing  rules  of  civil  government,  for  free 
and  thinking  men,  who  were  imposing  just  restraints 
upon  themselves,  and  not  dictating  to  others.  The 
common  law  was  evidently  their  admiration ;  yet  keep- 
ing the  commandments  in  view,  if  they  bowed  down, 
they  did  not  worship  it.  On  the  contrary,  their  re- 
flections upon  this  great  subject  of  law-making,  were 
in  a  high  degree  original;  its  importance  immediately 
arresting  their  attention  and  commanding  both  solici- 
tude and  care.  Mr.  Cotton,  or  Mr.  Davenport,  com- 
posed and  published  in  Boston,  as  far  back  as  1663, 
"A  Discourse  on  Civil  Government  in  a  New  Planta- 
tion;" and  in  1650  Mr.Ludlow,a  distinguished  jurist  of 
Connecticut,  compiled  a  body  of  laws  for  that  common- 
wealth, at  the  request  of  its  government;  thus  show- 
ing from  the  very  outset,  that  civil  rule,  as  it  should  be 
in  a  new  plantation,  was  kept  constantly  in  view;  and 
nothing  is  more  striking  or  admirable  than  the  early 
legislation  of  our  ancestors  upon  natural,  human  rights, 
and  the  best  mode  of  protecting  them. 

With  a  bold  defiance  of  customs  immemorial,  and  of 
forms  rendered  sacred  by  antiquity,  they  commenced 
the  progress  of  legal  reform,  from  the  moment  their 
feet  first  pressed  the  sod  of  their  new-found  country. 
With  no  affected  disregard  for  the  wisdom  and  learn- 
ing of  their  ancestors,  with  no  pretensions  to  a  more 
perfect  knowledge  of  man's  true  social  condition  than 
that  which  prevailed  at  home,  they  did,  nevertheless, 
from  the  beginning  institute  the  inquiry,  as  to  how 
much  of  an  antiquated  system  was  suited  to  their  wants 
and  condition ;  and  with  a  steady  eye  upon  ancient  pre- 


42     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

cedents,  begin  a  system  of  legal  change,  at  once  radical 
yet  conservative.  And  I  may  here  safely  assert,  that 
many  if  not  all  the  important  alterations  made  in  the 
jurisprudence  of  this  State,  within  the  last  fifty  years, 
have  been  borrowed,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the 
laws  of  New  England,  and  especially  from  those  of 
Connecticut. 

The  subject  of  non-imprisonment  for  debt,  for  in- 
stance, concerning  which  so  much  has  been  said  and 
done  within  the  last  twenty  years,  was  considered  and 
acted  upon  in  New  England  two  hundred  years  ago; 
and  the  act  passed  by  the  State  of  New  York  in  the  year 
1833,  entitled,  "an  act  to  abolish  imprisonment  for 
debt,  and  to  punish  fraudulent  debtors,"  is  scarcely 
anything  more  than  a  transcript  from  an  act  of  1650, 
passed  by  the  colony  of  Connecticut.  The  latter  act 
provides  "that  no  person  should  be  arrested  or  impris- 
oned for  any  debt  or  fine,  if  the  law  could  find  any  com- 
petent means  of  satisfaction  from  his  estate ;  and  if  not, 
his  person  might  be  arrested  and  imprisoned  till  satis- 
faction; provided  nevertheless,  that  no  man's  person 
should  be  kept  in  prison  for  debt  but  when  there  ap- 
peared to  be  some  estate  which  he  would  not  produce ;" 
and  the  chief  difference  between  the  two  lies  in  this, 
that  the  primitive  act  is  clear  and  explicit,  while  the 
modern  one  is  so  blind  and  confused,  that  various  con- 
structions have  been  put  upon  it  by  different  tribunals, 
and  sometimes  by  the  same  tribunal.  Nor  was  this 
exemption  from  imprisonment  a  vain  illusion,  "keeping 
the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear,  but  breaking  it  to  the 
hope."  It  was  substantial  and  complete;  for  no  hon- 
est man  in  Connecticut  could  ever  be  kept  in  the  cells 
of  a  prison.  There  was,  it  is  true,  a  theory  of  non- 
imprisonment  for  debt  in  other  lands,  but  it  was  a  the- 
ory only,  well  illustrated  in  the  "Antiquary,"  as  you 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  43 

may  remember,  by  Mr.  Oldbuck,  in  a  dialogue  with  his 
nephew.  "Nephew,"  said  that  amusing  creation  of 
Scott's  fancy,  "it  is  a  remarkable  thing  that  in  this 
happy  country  no  man  can  be  legally  imprisoned  for 
debt."  "The  truth  is,  the  king,  interesting  himself  as 
a  monarch  should,  in  his  subjects'  private  affairs,  is  so 
good  as  to  interfere  at  the  request  of  the  creditor  and 
to  send  the  debtor  his  royal  command  to  do  him  justice 
within  a  certain  time,  fifteen  days,  or  six,  as  the  case 
may  be.  Well,  the  man  resists  and  disobeys.  What 
follows?  Why  that  he  be  lawfully  and  rightfully  de- 
clared a  rebel  to  our  gracious  sovereign,  whose  com- 
mand he  has  disobeyed,  and  that  by  three  blasts  of  a 
horn  at  the  market-place  of  Edinburgh,  the  metropolis 
of  Scotland.  And  he  is  then  legally  imprisoned,  not  on 
account  of  any  civil  debt,  but  because  of  his  ungrateful 
contempt  of  the  royal  mandate."  In  Connecticut  there 
was  no  royal  mandate  which  could  send  a  man  to  jail 
with  three  blasts  of  a  horn. 

Some  years  ago,  letters  upon  this  important  subject 
of  imprisonment  for  debt,  were  addressed  to  John 
Adams  and  Daniel  Webster;  and  each  of  those  illus- 
trious men  stated  in  reply,  that  if  it  were  an  original 
and  open  question,  neither  of  them  had  any  doubt  of  its 
oppressive  character,  nor  the  propriety  of  abolishing  it. 
And  since  that  period  a  number  of  the  States,  as  well  as 
Congress  itself,  have  interfered  for  the  just  preserva- 
tion of  human  liberty,  except  in  cases  of  crime.  But 
here  we  find  that  in  1650  the  persons  of  men  were  held 
free  from  the  slavery  of  imprisonment  when  caused  by 
misfortune  or  poverty ;  while  the  dishonest  debtor,  who 
had  the  means  of  payment,  but  refused  to  appropriate 
them  to  the  discharge  of  his  engagements,  was  to  be 
treated  as  a  felon,  and  to  meet  with  a  felon's  reward. 
And  so  tender  were  they  then  of  personal  liberty,  that 


44     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

the  first  process  against  a  debtor  was  a  summons  com- 
manding him  to  appear  and  answer  the  complaint  made 
against  him ;  and  it  was  only  upon  his  refusal  that  an 
attachment  could  be  issued  against  him  for  his  "wilful 
contempt." 

By  another  section  of  the  same  statute,  which  is  also 
embodied  in  the  far-famed  modern  code  of  New  York, 
it  was  provided,  that  if  any  citizen  of  Connecticut  was 
about  to  abscond,  or  convey  away  his  estate  with  intent 
to  defraud  his  creditors,  then  that  an  attachment  might 
issue  against  him  for  the  benefit  of  all  his  creditors. 
But  to  guard  against  abuses,  it  was  also  provided,  that 
if  any  attachment  were  laid  upon  any  man's  estate  upon 
a  pretence  of  a  great  sum,  and  it  was  not  proved  to  be 
due  in  some  near  portion  to  the  sum  mentioned  in  the 
attachment,  then  that  the  sureties  always  required  upon 
the  issuing  of  such  process,  should  be  liable  for  the 
damages  sustained  thereby.  Could  anything  be  more 
wise,  just  or  prudent,  than  laws  like  these?  And  have 
we,  in  relation  to  the  same  subject,  improved  upon  them 
down  to  this  day?  But  who,  in  modern  times,  has 
given  credit  to  our  ancestors  for  their  labors  of  wisdom 
and  charity  in  this  behalf,  or  acknowledged  the  source 
from  whence  these  improvements  have  been  derived  ? 

So  again,  they  had  a  proceeding  in  relation  to  real 
property,  very  analogous  to  what  is  termed  a  creditor's 
bill  in  this  State,  (land  being  at  that  time  a  principal 
object  of  care  and  value  in  the  colonies,)  whereby  cred- 
itors might  have  the  benefit  of  its  sale,  by  a  very  simple 
and  inexpensive  process,  in  the  order  of  the  presenting 
of  their  claims.  But  there  was  a  difference,  neverthe- 
less, between  the  modern  and  the  ancient  law,  in  this, 
that  in  cases  of  insolvency  on  the  part  of  the  debtor, 
the  ancient  law  directs  that  the  attachments  should 
enure  to  the  benefit  of  all  creditors  in  proportion  to 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          45 

their  respective  claims;  while  the  modern  one  gives  a 
preference  and  priority  to  the  most  vigilant;  and  in 
this  particular  the  justice  of  the  original  act  is  obvious 
and  pre-eminent.  So,  in  relation  to  trials  by  jury,  (an 
institution  which  was  the  subject  of  the  first  law  passed 
by  the  Plymouth  settlement,)  one  colony  had  a  most 
excellent  provision,  which  might  be  adopted  with  de- 
cided benefit  here  in  this  city.  It  was,  that  juries 
might  be  called  of  six  or  twelve  persons,  according  to 
the  importance  of  the  subject,  and  that  a  verdict  of  four 
out  of  six,  and  eight  out  of  twelve,  should  be  conclu- 
sive upon  the  parties,  unless  a  new  trial  were  granted. 
Now,  the  requirements  of  our  practice,  derived  from 
the  laws  of  England,  which  demand  an  absolute  una- 
nimity in  the  minds  of  twelve  men,  even  in  civil  causes, 
are  oftentimes  the  source  of  much  delay,  expense,  and 
injury,  to  all  the  parties  concerned.  Would  not  the 
pages  written  by  our  forefathers  upon  these  important 
concerns  disclose  something  more  than  the  ancients 
found  in  the  leaves  of  a  Sybiline  oracle,  blown  about  by 
the  winds  of  heaven  as  the  heralds  of  fortuitous  pro- 
phecy and  justice?  Our  ancestors,  with  a  far-reaching 
sagacity,  also  provided  for  a  complete  registration  of 
all  grants  of  land,  in  order  that,  by  a  public  and  open 
inspection  of  conveyances,  clear  evidences  of  title  might 
be  found  and  preserved.  To  this  day,  England  herself 
has  not  attained  to  these  improvements,  except  in  a 
limited  number  of  counties;  and  there  each  proprietor 
must  trust  to  private  care  alone  for  the  preservation  of 
his  estate. 

The  complicated  forms  in  civil  proceedings,  the  volu- 
minous pages  of  the  conveyancer's  deeds,  and  the  tau- 
tology of  English  statutes  were  at  once  exploded,  and 
in  their  place  came  simple  and  clear  statements  of  claim 
and  counter  claim,  direct  and  straight-forward  plead- 


46     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ings,  and  brief,  but  comprehensive,  evidences  of  title. 
An  English  deed  for  an  hundred  acres  is  engrossed  on 
parchment,  with  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  tortured  into 
a  thousand  useless  shapes,  that  ancient  forms  may  be 
preserved.  A  New  England  deed,  in  one  brief  page, 
contains  all  the  elements  of  a  perfect  contract  between 
the  parties,  with  a  direct  assurance  of  title.  The  known 
defects  in  the  laws  and  practice  of  England  pointed 
out  and  so  strikingly  stated  by  Lord  Brougham,  in 
his  great  speech  upon  Law  Reforms,  delivered  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  1828,  were  discovered  and  ban- 
ished from  the  New  England  States,  while  they  were 
yet  colonies  under  the  British  crown.  Nor  can  I  find 
any  essential  changes  or  improvements  specified  or 
called  for  by  that  remarkable  statesman,  which  were 
not  adopted  by  our  ancestors  years  ago. 

You  are  aware  that  in  England  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant offices  in  the  civil  law  courts,  are  held  by  prel- 
ates of  the  church,  and  that  the  whole  law  of  marriage 
and  divorce,  of  personal  estates,  both  testate  and  intes- 
tate, is  administered  under  the  control  of  bishops  and 
archbishops.  This  being  an  inheritance  from  Rome, 
and  one  of  the  worst  of  the  long-continued  papal 
abuses,  was  abolished  at  once  and  forever  by  our  an- 
cestors, who  committed  these  important  trusts  to  re- 
sponsible men,  appointed  by  responsible  tribunals; 
while  dower  and  inheritance,  which  vary  in  England, 
with  the  varying  customs  of  counties  and  manors,  were 
made  uniform  and  consistent. 

The  complicated  proceedings  of  English  courts  in 
actions  of  ejectment  were  also  discarded  in  the  Eastern 
States,  and  it  is  only  within  the  last  twenty  years  that 
New  York  has  adopted  this  obvious  improvement  from 
one  of  her  nearest  sisters.  Then  again,  wise  and  equal 
laws  were  provided  for  a  just  distribution  of  estates 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          47 

among  children  and  heirs,  while  tenures  were  made 
simple,  and  primogenitures  abolished.  In  England  an 
the  lands  of  the  ancestor,  on  one  side  of  a  river,  might 
descend  to  the  oldest  son,  on  the  other  to  the  youngest ; 
while  in  a  third  place,  the  children  might  innerit 
equally.  But  in  New  England,  the  dictates  of  common 
sense  and  common  justice  were  at  once  obeyed,  and 
tenures  placed  upon  their  true  foundations.  And  then, 
as  to  that  law  which  prefers  the  first-born  son  to  all 
others,  in  itself  so  iniquitous;  what  had  our  ancestors 
to  say  to  that  ?  They  blotted  it  out  from  their  statute- 
book,  and  banished  it  forever.  How  otherwise  could 
equal  rights  be  maintained,  or  republican  forms  of  gov- 
ernment preserved?  In  the  proud  monarchies  01  Eu- 
rope, it  became  the  policy  of  the  aristocracy  to  preserve 
great  estates  in  the  same  families  in  a  direct  line,  that 
their  influence  might  remain  continuous  and  unbroken, 
thus  transmitting  from  father  to  son  not  only  the 
wealth  of  the  ancestor,  but  his  political  influence  also. 

But  in  a  free  country,  how  should  we  stand  if  the 
parent  might  entail  upon  his  son  whole  towns  and  coun- 
ties and  states,  even  without  any  accompanying  politi- 
cal authority?  Would  free  men  contentedly  ride,  for 
thirty  miles,  by  the  side  of  a  great  estate,  (as  you  may 
now  in  some  parts  of  Great  Britain)  with  the  reflection 
in  their  minds,  that  in  all  time  to  come,  the  influence 
of  that  proprietor  and  his  descendants  must  remain  un- 
checked and  undisturbed?  What  caused  the  most  se- 
rious outbreaks  among  the  people  of  Rome  ?  And  why 
did  they  desert  their  city,  and  take  refuge  on  the 
sacred  mount?  The  monopoly  of  lands  by  the  rich, 
and  the  debts  of  the  poor.  What  was  the  remedy  pro- 
posed there  ?  A  division  of  those  lands  among  persons 
whose  claims  upon  them  were  those  of  hard  necessity, 
if  not  of  natural  justice.  But  what  distributive  law 


48     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

did  our  ancestors  provide  to  check,  if  not  effectually 
destroy,  this  dangerous  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the 
same  hands  ?  They  said  that  lands,  where  there  was  no 
will  to  direct  otherwise,  should  descend  to  all  the  heirs 
alike;  that  personal  property  should  be  equally  distrib- 
uted, and  the  power  ot  entailment  so  limited,  that  to 
preserve  its  existence  it  must  be  renewed  in  every  gen- 
eration. This,  says  Judge  Story,  is  the  true  agrarian 
law,  which  in  all  time  to  come  will  guard  the  just  rights 
of  acquirement  and  possession,  while  it  corrects  the 
great  public  evils  of  inordinate  accumulation;  and  you 
see  how  instantly  our  ancestors  seized  upon  and 
adopted  this  indispensable  restraint. 

Then  the  criminal  laws  of  England,  more  bloody 
than  the  laws  of  Draco,  were  all  remodeled,  and  their 
severities  softened  down;  even  at  that  time,  when  the 
public  mind  had  not  begun  much  to  consider  this  im- 
portant subject.  In  all  things,  I  assert  with  confidence, 
in  relation  to  the  laws,  both  public  and  private,  our  an- 
cestors made  great  and  marvelous  improvements  upon 
those  of  the  land  from  whence  they  took  their  origin. 
And  these  reforms  became  afterwards  matters  of  the 
highest  political  concernment,  when  they  had  shaken 
off  the  control  of  the  mother  country.  Republican  in 
their  habits  of  thinking  and  acting;  republican  in  their 
frugality;  republican  in  their  laws  and  forms  of  gov- 
ernment, the  States  of  New  England  were  early  pre- 
pared for  that  great  change  wrought  out  for  them  by 
the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Their  civil  and  political 
rights  were  well  understood  from  the  very  beginning; 
they  were  preserved  and  cherished  through  all  their 
early  struggles  for  existence,  and  were  all  prepared  to 
be  acted  upon  when  the  day  of  trial  came.  Hence  it 
has  been  remarked,  and  with  strict  propriety,  that  at  the 
time  of  our  Independence,  so  slight  was  the  connection 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          49 

between  some  of  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country 
in  their  relations  of  law  and  government,  and  the 
change  interfered  so  little  with  their  internal  concerns, 
that  the  transition  from  a  dependent  to  a  sovereign  con- 
dition was  almost  imperceptible.  In  Connecticut,  they 
merely  erased  the  name  of  "his  majesty,"  from  their 
legal  proceedings,  and  inserted,  "by  the  name  and  au- 
thority of  the  State ;"  and  then,  in  all  essential  particu- 
lars, the  administration  of  the  law  proceeded  after  the 
Revolution,  exactly  as  it  had  done  before. 

I  presume,  before  dismissing  this  part  of  the  subject, 
it  may  be  expected,  that  I,  considering  my  profession, 
should  not  pass  by  that  which  has  been  made  a'  matter 
of  scoffing  and  reproach  upon  a  colony  of  New  Eng- 
land, by  those  who,  never  investigating  its  reality,  have 
caught  from  others  the  traditional  jests  connected  with 
the  blue  laws  of  New  Haven. 

In  the  first  place,  it  seems  to  be  supposed  that  there 
actually  were,  in  that  colony,  grave  enactments  against 
offending  beer-barrels,  and  that  the  austerity  of  Puritan 
practice  even  prohibited  a  mother  from  kissing  her 
child  on  a  Sunday.  Let  those  who  have  lightly  re- 
ceived such  impressions,  and  lightly  conveyed  them  to 
others,  look  into  the  early  laws  of  New  Haven,  and 
tell  me  whether,  upon  such  examination,  any  mirthful 
emotions  can  come  over  their  minds?  And  let  me  re- 
mind them  further,  that  most  of  the  supposed  enact- 
ments rest  upon  this  one,  of  which,  perhaps  they  may 
have  heard :  "Remember  that  thou  keep  holy  the  Sab- 
bath day!" 

Nothing  more  solemn,  nothing  more  imposing,  noth- 
ing more  grave  or  dignified,  can  be  found  in  all  his- 
tory, than  the  first  acts  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven, 
when  they  proceeded  to  lay  the  foundations  of  their 
government.  The  free  planters  being  all  assembled, 


50     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

say  their  records,  Mr.  Davenport  commenced  the  busi- 
ness by  a  sermon  upon  these  words:  "Wisdom  hath 
builded  her  house,  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars.)' 
After  this  discourse  and  a  solemn  invocation  of  the 
name  of  God  in  prayer,  they  were  reminded  of  the  busi- 
ness for  which  they  had  met ;  that  it  was  "for  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  civil  order  as  might  be  most  pleasing 
unto  God,  and  for  the  choosing  of  the  fittest  men  for 
the  foundation  work  of  a  church  to  be  gathered."  Mr. 
Davenport  thereupon  proposed  divers  queries,  praying 
them  to  consider  seriously  the  weight  of  the  business 
about  which  they  had  met,  and  not  to  be  rash  in  giving 
their  votes  for  things  which  they  did  not  understand, 
but  to  digest  thoroughly,  and  without  respect  to  men, 
what  should  be  proposed  to  them,  giving  such  answers 
as  they  would  be  willing  should  stand  upon  record  for 
posterity!  And  thereupon  it  was  propounded  in  the 
first  place,  "whether  the  Scriptures  hold  forth  a  perfect 
rule  for  the  direction  and  government  of  men  in  their 
duties."  This  was  assented  to  without  an  opposing 
voice ;  and  let  me  ask  whether  there  are  any  here  pres- 
ent, who,  if  they  had  been  standing  by  the  side  of  Mr. 
Davenport,  on  that  solemn  occasion,  would  have  ven- 
tured to  deny  that  such  a  rule  may  be  found  in  those 
sacred  writings?  The  second  question  was,  whether 
in  the  choosing  of  magistrates,  the  making  and  repeal- 
ing of  laws  and  the  dividing  of  lands,  the  planters 
would  be  governed  by  the  rules  which  the  Scriptures 
hold  forth?  This  also  was  assented  to,  "and  no  man 
gainsayed  it,  and  they  did  testify  the  same  by  holding 
up  their  hands,  both  when  it  was  first  propounded,  and 
afterwards  confirmed  the  same,  by  holding  up  their 
hands  when  it  was  read  unto  them  in  public."  In  the 
improvements  of  time,  we  have  been  taught  by  our  ne- 
cessities, many  lessons  in  the  mode  of  adapting  laws  to 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  51 

our  changing  condition;  but  stand  back  in  contempla- 
tion, two  hundred  years,  and  tell  me  where  could  you 
discover  better  models  for  the  government  of  a  free 
people,  both  in  the  choice  of  their  magistrates  and  the 
division  of  their  lands,  than  those  found  in  the  Jewish 
polity?  Why,  our  own  laws,  in  relation  to  the  division 
of  estates,  do  not  differ  essentially  from  the  laws  which 
governed  the  Hebrews ;  their  object  being  to  secure  not 
only  an  equal  distribution  of  property,  but  to  bring 
back,  at  given  periods  of  time,  to  the  same  families,  for 
equal  use  and  enjoyment,  such  allotments  of  land  as 
might  have  been  alienated.  Where  in  the  annals  of 
civilized  Europe  can  you  find  the  history  of  a  govern- 
ment more  free,  or  more  republican,  than  that  which 
existed  among  the  Jews,  during  the  period  of  their 
judges  ?  And  when  was  the  choice  of  magistrates  left 
more  open  and  unrestrained  than  among  the  same  peo- 
ple, at  the  same  epoch?  What  was  there  narrow,  or 
bigoted,  or  objectionable  in  the  second  query  which  I 
have  read  ?  For  you  will  recollect  that  the  proposition 
was  not,  to  adopt  Jewish  laws  and  Jewish  forms  of 
government  indiscriminately;  but  whether  fit  rules  for 
the  choosing  of  magistrates,  the  framing  of  laws,  and 
the  division  of  lands  might  not  be  found  in  the  Bible, 
including  both  Testaments,  the  new  as  well  as  the  old  ? 
And  if  the  question  were  now  proposed  here,  I  venture 
to  assert,  that  no  man  would  "gainsay  it,  but  all  would 
testify  for  the  same  by  holding  up  their  hands,  both 
when  propounded,  and  when  afterwards  it  should  be 
read  to  them."  The  third  query  had  reference  merely 
to  the  form  of  admission  to  the  church ;  and  the  fourth 
was :  "whether  they  held  themselves  bound  to  establish 
such  civil  order  as  might  best  secure  the  peace  of  the 
ordinances  to  them  and  their  posterity;"  and  this,  of 
course,  was  carried  without  dissent;  for  no  man  now, 


52     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Tew  or  Gentile,  Christian  or  Pagan,  can  find  any  objec- 
tion to  this  proposition  in  the  abstract,  or  as  it  was 
originally  presented  for  consideration  and  adoption. 

Mr.  Davenport  thereupon  declared  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, that  the  magistrates  to  be  entrusted  with  the  mat- 
ters of  government,  according  to  the  rule  thus  adopted, 
must  be  "able  men,  such  as  fear  God;  men  of  truth, 
hating  covetousness."  And  if  we  could  now,  even  in 
these  days,  by  a  like  vote  secure  such  magistrates, 
"fearing  God  and  hating  covetousness,"  I,  for  one, 
would  "belong  to  that  party."  Mr.  Davenport  fur- 
ther declared,  that  by  their  vote  they  were  free  to  cast 
themselves  into  any  mould  and  form  of  a  common- 
wealth, which  appeared  to  them  best,  for  the  securing 
of  the  objects  contemplated  in  his  propositions ;  and  he 
charged  Mr.  Eaton  the  first  Governor,  in  open  court, 
that  he  should  not  respect  persons  in  judgment ;  that  he 
should  hear  the  small  as  well  as  the  great  and  that  he 
should  not  fear  the  face  of  man. 

Such  were  the  rules  adopted  by  that  plantation,  upon 
its  establishment;  but  from  the  strict  administration  of 
them,  went  forth  the  report  concerning  the  blue  laws  of 
Connecticut.  There  were  not  in  fact,  any  such  enact- 
ments; but  there  were  trials  for  offences  against  the 
Sabbath,  and  against  modest  decency,  founded  upon 
the  general  law  of  morals,  which  have  led  to  a  misap- 
prehension upon  this  subject,  and  served  to  cast  ridi- 
cule where  none  whatever  was  deserved. 

Again :  it  has  often  been  made  a  subject  of  reproach 
upon  our  ancestors,  that  having  left  their  own  country 
for  the  sake  of  religious  freedom,  and  the  enjoyment  of 
the  rights  of  conscience  unshackled  and  uncontrolled, 
they  did  nevertheless,  become  themselves  intolerant,  the 
moment  they  were  in  possession  of  a  country  with  their 
own  supremacy  firmly  established ;  that  they  were  nar- 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          53 

row  in  their  notions,  selfish  in  their  designs,  exclusive 
in  their  purposes,  and  tyrannical  in  their  acts;  willing 
to  become  the  subjects  and  objects  of  universal  reli- 
gious emancipation  themselves,  but  determined,  at  the 
same  time,  to  subdue  all  others  to  their  opinions. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  this  is  an  unfair  mode 
of  stating  the  case.  The  original  settlers  did  not  visit 
the  inhospitable  shores  of  New  England  for  any  ob- 
jects of  universal  toleration;  nor  for  the  purpose  of  al- 
lowing men  of  all  religions,  and  no  religion,  an  oppor- 
tunity of  planting  their  errors,  or  disseminating  their 
infidelity.  No  1  Far  different  from  this  were  the  pur- 
poses and  objects  of  those  religious  wanderers;  who,  if 
misguided  in  their  notions,  and  over  scrupulous  in  their 
faith,  were  nevertheless  sincere,  devout,  and  upright. 
With  them  religious  faith  was  a  principle.  It  was  a 
guide  to  their  actions,  a  rule  for  their  conduct,  and  a 
law  for  their  government;  the  "be  all  and  the  end  all" 
of  their  objects  in  this  world,  and  of  their  hope  in  that 
which  is  to  come. 

What  if  they  were  misguided?  What  if  they  were 
heated  with  zeal  ?  What  if  they  were  exclusive  in  their 
opinions,  stern  in  their  judgments,  and  unyielding  in 
their  purposes  ?  Were  they  not  actuated  by  the  purest 
and  the  holiest  motives  that  ever  filled  or  agitated  the 
breast  of  men?  Had  they  not  left  the  consolations  of 
home,  of  kindred,  and  of  country,  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  worshipping  God  in  the  wilderness  in  their  own 
way?  Seeking  no  associations  with  those  who  enter- 
tained different  opinions;  asking  no  favor,  requiring  no 
aid,  or  succor,  or  comfort,  except  from  Him  who  saw 
their  hearts,  and  knew  that  they  were  upright  and 
pure  ?  It  may  be,  that  in  their  peculiar  notions  in  rela- 
tion to  religious  government  they  were  misguided ;  and 
as  a  rule  of  civil  action  we  now  all  believe  that  each 


54     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

creed,  and  every  religion,  should  be  permitted  to  ex- 
ist by  its  own  inherent  truth,  uncontrolled  by  human 
laws,  unprotected  by  political  favor,  untrammelled  by 
worldly  device. 

This  is  the  modern  theory  of  republican  and  religious 
liberty,  as  maintained  in  this  free,  this  charitable  land; 
but  which  finds  little  favor  in  any  other  part  of  the 
Christian  world.  We  consider  it,  and  as  I  think 
rightly,  one  of  the  natural,  one  of  the  legitimate,  if  not 
inevitable  results  of  that  great  reform,  which  shook  the 
papal  structure  to  its  centre,  and  shot  through  the  bo- 
soms of  thinking  men  with  an  electric  force  which  will 
never  cease  to  operate,  until  its  objects  are  accom- 
plished, and  man  stands  forth  free  from  the  dictations 
of  his  fellow  men  in  all  that  binds  him  to  a  future  state. 

But  believe  me,  Gentlemen  of  New  England,  this 
doctrine  so  free,  so  liberal,  so  republican,  so  just  in 
itself,  so  necessary  to  our  institutions,  did  not  originate 
in  minds  filled  with  the  ardor  of  that  faith  which  sees 
but  one  object,  and  that  object  under  but  one  form  and 
pressure.  Oh,  no!  The  most  tolerant  man  was  not, 
I  think,  originally  the  most  devout  man,  although  he 
might  have  been  sincere.  No!  His  lips  were  not 
touched  as  with  a  live  coal  from  the  altar,  who  first 
proclaimed  that  there  were  no  differences  to  be  re- 
garded amongst  men  in  their  various  creeds.  Our  fa- 
thers cherished  their  faith  as  the  immortal  principle 
which  causes  men  to  feel  the  necessity  of  another  exist- 
ence, and  to  yearn  after  it,  with  that  overflowing  of 
spirit  which  gives  evidence  of  the  full  heart  and  the 
contrite  soul. 

But  I  am  ready  to  maintain  that  the  original  settlers 
of  New  England  were  not  even  intolerant,  in  the  cor- 
rect sense  of  that  term,  when  we  understand  their  pur- 
poses and  examine  their  actions.  That  the  congrega- 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  55 

tion  of  Mr.  Robinson  did  not  desire  to  associate  in  civil 
government  with  Arians  and  ranters,  with  papists  and 
infidels,  may  be  true  enough ;  and  why  should  they  not 
be  permitted  to  worship  God  by  themselves,  in  their 
own  way,  undisturbed  by  conflicting  opinions,  unheated 
by  argument,  unswayed  by  opposite  practice?  They 
sought  not  to  make  converts  of  others,  excepting  the 
heathen.  They  interfered  with  no  man's  religious  be- 
lief, unless  he  thrust  himself  upon  their  jurisdiction; 
and  within  this  pale  they  had,  in  my  judgment,  a  per- 
fect right  to  be  exclusive.  If  there  were  others  who 
thought  that  peculiarities  of  doctrine  were  not  of  the 
essence  of  faith,  the  wilderness  was  open,  and  they 
might  have  followed  the  example  of  the  Pilgrims. 
"The  world  was  all  before  them  where  to  choose  their 
place  of  rest;"  and  neither  Ann  Hutchinson,  nor 
Thomas  Morton,  the  disturbing  lawyer,  nor  even 
Roger  Williams  himself,  had  a  right  to  come  uncalled 
for,  within  the  limits  of  Plymouth  or  Massachusetts, 
and  then  cry  out,  "persecution  and  intolerance." 

I  would  speak  of  Roger  Williams  with  great  respect, 
as  of  one  who  had  the  clearest  perceptions  of  that  which 
is  both  right  and  expedient  in  religious  affairs,  as  con- 
nected with  civil  government.  Viewing  the  question 
in  its  modern  aspect,  when  time  has  made  the  truth 
clear,  and  experience  has  shown  that  the  power  of  law 
need  never  be  brought  to  act  upon  spiritual  belief,  we 
all  of  us  bear  witness  to  the  abstract  correctness  of 
Mr.  Williams'  opinions.  He  may  be  considered  as 
among  the  first  of  those  who  advanced  and  maintained 
the  proposition,  that  there  should  be  a  total  separation 
of  ecclesiastical  from  civil  control;  and  he  is  entitled 
to  our  admiration  for  the  broad  extent  of  his  views  in 
the  true  administration  of  secular  laws  upon  religious 
opinion.  And  yet,  in  my  judgment,  there  never  was  a 


56     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

more  unpropitious  moment  for  the  promulgation  of  his 
peculiar  notions  upon  all  these  subjects  than  that  se- 
lected by  him  in  1630  and  1632. 

At  that  moment,  the  settlement  in  Massachusetts  was 
but  just  begun.  Endicott  and  Winthrop,  and  Higgin- 
son,  and  their  associates,  emigrated  with  feelings  and 
purposes,  and  objects,  similar  to  those  which  had  in- 
duced Bradford  and  Winslow,  and  the  Congregational 
Pilgrims  of  Leyden  to  seek  a  refuge  in  a  distant  land; 
nor  did  the  views  and  opinions  of  the  emigrants  to 
Massachusetts  differ  in  any  essential  degree  from  those 
entertained  by  the  inhabitants  of  Plymouth.  Between 
these  colonies  there  was  generally  harmonious  thought 
and  united  action;  but  in  their  religious  sentiments 
they  were  not  intolerant.  No,  not  as  intolerant  as  we 
of  the  present  day  are;  although  their  civil  condition, 
in  some  respects,  differed  widely  from  our  own.  In 
forming  the  structures  of  government,  our  ancestors 
had  to  provide  for  order,  safety,  and  subordination; 
and  that  these  might  all  be  secured,  they  had  recourse  to 
those  ordinances,  which  they  had  adopted  from  deep 
seated  conviction ;  and  upon  what  better,  or  broader,  or 
more  enduring  foundations,  could  they  have  rested  the 
hopes  of  their  new  colony,  than  the  eternal  foundations 
of  religious  truth?  But  these  men  were  not,  I  assert 
again,  either  intolerant  or  narrow  minded,  or  bigoted 
in  the  abstractions  of  religious  belief.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  respected  the  opinions  of  others ;  being  per- 
fectly willing  that  they  should  be  enjoyed  without 
molestation;  and  they  only  asked  for  themselves  that 
which  they  freely  granted  to  all  mankind.  That  they 
had  no  good  opinion  of  the  superstitions  of  the  Romish 
church,  is  true;  and  that  they  considered  the  forms  of 
worship  kept  up  in  the  church  of  England  as  mere 
modifications  of  papal  observance,  is  also  true;  but  at 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          57 

the  same  time,  they  had  charity  for  its  ordinances,  and 
respect  for  its  members. 

This  charge  of  intolerance  was  an  old  charge,  made 
against  them,  or  rather  against  the  independent 
churches,  to  which  the  first  settlers,  for  the  most  part 
belonged,  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  was 
answered  by  them  at  the  time.  "I  have  shown,"  (says 
Mr.  Winslow)  "that  the  foundation  of  our  New  Eng- 
land plantations  was  not  laid  upon  schism,  division,  or 
separation,  but  upon  love,  peace  and  happiness,  and 
also,  that  the  primitive  churches  are  the  only  pattern 
which  the  churches  of  Christ,  in  New  England,  have  in 
their  eyes;  not  following  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  Ains- 
worth,  Robinson,  Ames,  or  any  other,  further  than  they 
follow  Christ  and  his  apostles."  Is  there  any  thing  of 
bigotry  or  narrow  minded  sentiment  in  this?  Any 
want  of  toleration  or  of  respect  for  the  opinions  of 
others?  Any  stiff-necked  assertion  of  superior  know- 
ledge, virtue  or  purity?  They  would  not  follow  any 
sect,  further  than  that  sect  followed  Christ  and  his 
apostles ;  and  surely,  a  truer  rule,  one  more  plain,  direct 
and  certain,  could  not  be  adopted. 

But  what  were  the  sentiments  of  John  Robinson  him- 
self, upon  this  subject?  Hear  his  own  words,  ad- 
dressed to  his  own  church,  at  the  time  of  their  de- 
parture to  begin  the  great  plantation  work  in  New 
England.  Amongst  other  wholesome  instructions,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Winslow,  he  used  expressions  to  this 
purpose :  "That  we  were  now,  ere  long,  to  part  asunder, 
and  the  Lord  only  knew  whether  ever  he  should  live  to 
see  our  faces  again.  But  whether  the  Lord  had  ap- 
pointed it  or  not,  he  charged  us  before  God  to  follow 
him  no  further  than  he  followed  Christ."  He  took 
occasion  also,  miserably  to  bewail  the  state  and  condi- 
tion of  the  reformed  church,  who  would  go  no  further 


58     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

than  the  instruments  of  their  reformation.  As  for  ex- 
ample; the  Lutherans  could  not  be  drawn  to  go  beyond 
what  Luther  saw;  for  whatever  part  of  God's  will  he 
had  further  imparted  and  revealed  to  Calvin,  they 
would  rather  die  than  embrace  it.  "And  so  also,"  said 
he,  "you  see  the  Calvinists,  they  stick  where  he  left 
them;  a  misery  much  to  be  lamented,  for  though  they 
were  precious  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  God  had 
not  revealed  his  whole  will  to  them.  And  so  he  advised 
us  by  all  means  to  endeavor  to  close  with  the  godly 
party  of  the  kingdom  of  England,  and  rather  to  study 
union  than  division,  namely,  how  near  we  might  pos- 
sibly, without  sin,  close  with  them,  than  in  the  least 
measure  to  effect  division  or  separation  from  them." 

Can  you  find  anything  in  history  more  liberal  than 
these  beautiful  and  heartfelt  remarks  of  the  godly  man, 
made  upon  his  final  separation  from  his  church,  when 
they  were  to  "part  asunder,  and  he  never  more  to  see 
their  faces  again?"  But  was  he  sincere?  Hear  the 
testimony  of  Mr.  Winslow  upon  this  point.  "For  his 
doctrine,"  says  he,  "I  living  three  years  under  his  min- 
istry, before  we  began  the  work  of  plantation  in  New 
England,  it  was  always  against  separation  from  any 
the  churches  of  Christ;  professing  and  holding  com- 
munion both  with  the  French  and  Dutch  churches,  yea 
the  tendering  it  the  Scotch  also;  even  holding  forth 
how  wary  persons  ought  to  be  in  separating  from  a 
church."  It  is  true  he  condemned  the  constitution  of 
the  church  of  England,  but  he  condemned  it  as  matter 
of  opinion  rather  than  of  censure.  "No  man,"  said  he, 
"to  whom  England  is  known,  can  be  ignorant  that  all 
the  natives  there,  and  subjects  of  the  kingdom,  al- 
though never  such  strangers  from  all  show  of  true 
piety,  and  goodness,  and  fraught  never  so  full  with 
many  most  heinous  impieties  and  vices,  are  without 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL  59 

difference  compelled  and  enforced  by  most  severe  laws, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  into  the  body  of  that  church; 
every  subject  of  the  kingdom  dwelling  in  this  or  that 
parish  is  bound,  will  he,  nill  he,  fit  or  unfit,  as  with 
iron  bonds,  to  participate  in  all  holy  things,  and  some 
unholy  too,  in  that  same  parish  church." 

But  the  emigrants  with  Governor  Winthrop,  were 
scarcely  separated  at  all  from  the  church  of  England; 
desiring  only  its  reform  in  matters  of  practice.  They 
had  been  born  and  brought  up  in  the  doctrines  of  that 
church,  and  lived  in  communion  with  it.  Their  min- 
isters had  been  ordained  by  her  bishops,  and  officiated 
in  her  parochial  churches ;  nor  was  there  any  secession 
until  after  their  arrival  in  New  England.  Mr.  Higgin- 
son,  in  taking  a  last  look  upon  his  native  land  ex- 
claimed :  "We  will  not  say,  as  the  separatists  were  wont 
to  say,  farewell  Babylon!  farewell  Rome!  but  we  will 
say  farewell,  dear  England !  farewell  the  church  of  God 
in  England,  and  all  the  Christian  friends  there."  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  and  his  company,  in  a  parting  ad- 
dress "to  the  rest  of  their  brethren  in  and  of  the  church 
of  England,  speak  of  it  as  their  'dear  mother,'  from 
whom  they  could  not  part  without  much  sadness  of 
heart  and  many  tears."  "We  leave  it,"  said  they,  not 
"as  loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were  nourished," 
"but  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and  education  as 
members  of  the  same  body.  We  shall  always  rejoice 
in  her  good,  and  unfeignedly  grieve  for  any  sorrow  that 
shall  ever  betide  her ;  and  while  we  have  breath,  sincerely 
desire  and  endeavor  the  continuance  and  abundance  of 
her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement  of  her  bounds  in  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus ;  wishing  our  heads  and  hearts 
were  fountains  of  tears  for  your  everlasting  welfare, 
when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages  in  the  wilderness, 
overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  supplication."  Are 


60     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

these  the  narrow  sentiments  of  bigotry  and  supersti- 
tion? Do  you  discover  anything  illiberal,  anything 
uncharitable,  anything  unchristian  here  ?  We  find  then, 
that  there  was  as  much  harmony  among  the  emigrants 
in  matters  of  religious  belief,  and  as  much  toleration,  as 
there  is  now,  so  far  as  mere  opinions  were  concerned; 
although  in  their  civil  relations  they  brought  their  laws 
to  bear  in  some  degree,  upon  the  conduct  of  men,  in 
matters  of  faith  and  practice. 

But  consider  their  condition,  their  purposes  and  ob- 
jects. They  had  gone  forth  from  their  homes  to  cher- 
ish sentiments,  and  secure  observances  within  their  own 
jurisdictions,  without  let  or  molestation  from  others. 
Their  government,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  was 
intended  for  themselves  alone,  and  not  to  be  forced 
upon  unwilling  minds,  or  uncomplying  tempers.  The 
grants  gave  them  an  exclusive  title  to  the  land  which 
they  were  to  occupy,  with  an  uncontrolled  right  to 
establish  laws  for  its  good  government.  They  had 
come  out  for  the  express  purpose  of  forming  a  distinct 
and  separate  organization;  a  commonwealth  of  their 
own,  to  be  governed  just  as  the  proprietaries  should 
themselves  see  fit. 

The  original  grant  to  Plymouth  only  comprehended 
the  country  lying  east  of  the  present  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  south  of  Massachusetts,  which  last  colony 
was  itself  at  first  bounded  by  the  narrow  limits  of 
Charles  river  and  the  Merrimack.  Now,  within  these 
circumscribed  spaces,  those  who  owned  the  soil  and  had 
the  power  of  governing  it,  proposed  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  new  societies,  established  for  their  own  objects 
and  purposes,  and  designed  to  carry  out  their  own  pe- 
culiar views.  They  did  not  invite  within  their  juris- 
diction settlers  of  all  nations,  kindreds  and  tongues; 
but  only  those  who  thought  as  they  thought  upon  the 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          61 

great  subjects  of  subordination  and  religion ;  and  hence 
Plymouth  early  enacted  laws  prohibiting  strangers, 
who  had  not  obtained  a  license  for  that  purpose  from 
the  magistrates,  from  settling  within  her  territories. 
Recollect,  the  first  emigrants  and  their  associates  in 
England,  owned  the  very  soil  upon  which  they  stood; 
and  having  ample  power,  for  its  government,  they  were 
desirous  of  banishing  all  the  elements  of  discord  from 
the  new  settlements,  by  excluding  all  those  who  were 
calculated  to  introduce  them.  If  other  persons,  differ- 
ing from  the  proprietaries  in  their  opinions  and  views, 
were  desirous  of  emigrating  to  the  western  world,  they 
had  merely  to  avoid  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  if 
they  considered  their  laws  or  ordinances  unkind,  un- 
just, or  severe.  They  could  go  to  the  north,  or  the 
south,  and  there  was  "ample  space  and  verge  enough" 
for  all.  Why  then  should  individuals,  prating  of  free 
government,  of  religion  and  entire  toleration,  thrust 
themselves  within  these  colonial  limits,  if  they  did  not 
mean  to  submit  to  the  laws  which  governed  them? 
They  were  not  invited  thither,  nor  solicited,  nor  called 
for,  nor  even  wanted. 

Was  there  any  injustice,  then,  in  laws,  in  resolutions, 
or  practices,  which  merely  sought  to  exclude  the  ele- 
ments of  schism,  anarchy  and  insubordination,  for  the 
purpose  of  preserving  peace,  good  order,  sound  moral- 
ity, and  a  pure  religious  faith  ?  They  did  not  seek  for 
proselytes,  nor  invite  settlers  of  a  different  creed  to 
come  within  their  borders;  but  such  individuals  came, 
nevertheless,  without  their  consent,  and  insisted  upon 
remaining  there,  not  merely  to  enjoy  their  own  opin- 
ions in  modest  quietude  and  silence,  but  to  proclaim 
those  opinions  aloud,  everywhere,  from  the  high  places, 
and  with  the  express  intent  of  drawing  the  original  set- 
tlers from  their  ancient  impressions.  And  because 


62     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

those  stout-hearted  men,  who  had  borne  the  burthen 
and  heat  of  the  day  to  accomplish  their  own  peculiar 
purposes,  raised  a  protest,  effectual  and  firm,  against 
such  innovations,  the  intruders  cried  out,  "persecution 
and  intolerance !"  Aye,  but  some  may  say,  "they  drove 
Roger  Williams  in  the  dead  of  winter  into  the  wilder- 
ness, exposed  to  its  cold  and  hardship,  and  the  tender 
mercies  of  its  savage  inhabitants." 

This  banishment  of  Mr.  Williams  was  entirely  of  his 
own  seeking,  and  the  time  selected  was  chosen  by  him- 
self. This  gentleman,  who  came  over  in  the  year 
1630,  began  life  with  such  a  furious  partisan  zeal,  that 
he  refused  to  join  in  fellowship  with  his  brethren  of 
Boston,  unless  they  would  declare  their  repentance  for 
having  communed  with  the  church  of  England  before 
they  left  that  country.  He  was  also  of  opinion,  that 
there  should  be  no  punishment  for  a  breach  of  the  Sab- 
bath, or  indeed  for  any  violations  of  the  precepts  of 
the  first  table  of  the  law,  unless  they  disturbed  the  pub- 
lic peace.  That  oaths  ought  not  to  be  tendered  to  un- 
repentant men;  that  thanks  should  not  be  given  after 
the  sacrament,  nor  after  meat,  and  that  a  Christian 
should  not  pray  with  an  unregenerate  person,  even 
though  wife  or  child!  He  also  insisted,  that  the  title 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  to  their  lands  was  not 
good;  and  he  maintained  these  opinions  in  the  most 
open  and  public  manner;  even  refusing  to  commune 
with  the  members  of  his  own  church,  unless  they  would 
separate  themselves  from  the  polluted  churches  of  New 
England.  These  opinions  were  deemed  to  be  not  only 
erroneous,  but  dangerous;  and  hence  he  was  warned 
that  he  must  not  assert  them  in  public,  if  he  expected  to 
remain  within  the  colony.  But  as  he  set  the  consti- 
tuted authorities  at  defiance,  sentence  of  banishment 
was  passed  upon  him,  in  October,  1635 ;  with  a  permis- 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          63 

sion,  however,  to  remain  until  spring,  provided  he 
would  restrain  himself  from  the  propensity  to  make 
proselytes,  and  proclaim  his  opinions  to  the  people.  It 
being  soon  ascertained,  however,  that  disregarding 
these  injunctions,  he  was  holding  meetings  at  his  own 
house,  and  preaching  upon  the  very  points  for  which  he 
was  censured,  an  order  was  given  for  his  arrest ;  not  for 
the  purpose  of  putting  him  in  prison,  or  thrusting  him 
out  among  savages,  but  for  the  purpose  of  sending 
him  back  to  England.  Hearing  of  this  order,  he  de- 
termined to  evade  it,  and  so  passed  over  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  the  west  part  of  the  Plymouth  jurisdiction, 
where  he  remained  for  some  time  among  the  Indians. 
His  place  of  retreat  being  known,  "that  ever  honored 
Governor  Winthrop,"  as  Williams  himself  styles  him, 
privately  wrote  him  to  "steer  his  course  to  the  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  as  being  free  from  English  claims  or  pat- 
ents." "I  took  his  prudent  motion,"  says  he,  "as  a 
voice  from  God!"  Once  established  within  his  own 
jurisdiction,  he  remained  there  without  interference  or 
molestation  on  the  part  of  the  colonies  of  Plymouth  or 
Massachusetts,  and  in  perfect  friendship  with  both. 
What  is  there  to  complain  of  in  all  this?  What  was 
there  of  hardship  or  injustice  in  the  case?  He  had 
come  to  the  colonies  without  invitation,  and  remained 
there  against  their  wishes.  They  did  not  desire  to 
stifle  his  opinions,  for  one  of  their  statutes  expressly 
says,  that  "no  creature  is  Lord,  or  has  power  over  the 
faith  and  consciences  of  men,  nor  may  restrain  them  to 
believe  or  profess  against  their  consciences;  nor  de- 
prive them  of  their  lawful  liberty  in  a  quiet  and  orderly 
way  to  propose  their  scruples."  But  they  did  desire  to 
suppress  the  open  and  public  proclamation  of  opinions, 
hurtful  to  their  property,  and  schismatical  in  their 
effects.  Instead  of  harmony  in  an  infant  and  feeble 


64     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

settlement,  under  his  preaching  there  would  be  inflamed 
zeal,  heated  controversy,  doubtful  faith,  disturbed  prin- 
ciples, and  unsettled  belief;  for  Williams  himself  after- 
wards became  strenuous  against  the  Quakers,  holding 
public  disputes  with  some  of  their  most  eminent  teach- 
ers. At  later  periods  of  his  life,  he  lived  in  open  neg- 
lect of  many  of  the  ordinances  for  which  he  had  once 
zealously  contended.  Instead  of  separating  himself 
from  the  anti-Christian  churches,  against  which  he  had 
been  so  loud,  he  was  ready  to  preach  and  pray  for  all 
sects,  and  became  entirely  doubtful  as  to  what  church 
he  should  unite  himself  with.  Why  should  Mr.  Wil- 
liams raise  up  commotion,  by  attacking  the  patent  of 
Massachusetts?  Why  should  he,  amongst  a  people 
who  could  not  by  possibility  be  brought  to  his  way  of 
thinking,  deny  that  the  commandments  of  the  first  table 
of  the  law  might  be  enforced  by  the  secular  power? 
Do  any  Christian  people;  does  any  State;  does  even 
Rhode  Island  herself  pretend  to  maintain  good  order 
upon  the  Sabbath  day,  without  any  law  for  its  proper 
observance?  One  of  the  moving  causes  of  emigration 
from  Holland  was  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  impossibility  of  correcting  the  evil  there;  the 
Dutch  ministers  themselves  acknowledging  the  diffi- 
culty of  withdrawing  the  people  from  their  sports  and 
ordinary  occupations  on  that  day.  Should  they  then, 
at  once  throw  off  observances  which  were  deemed  fun- 
damental and  sacred?  Should  they  admit  themselves 
to  be  wrong  on  this  vital  point,  which  has  never  yet 
been  abandoned  by  their  descendants,  and  say  that  con- 
science made  a  law  for  itself,  sufficient  in  all  these  mat- 
ters of  outward  observance?  Are  the  consciences  of  all 
men  alike  ?  And  guided  by  its  dictates  alone,  can  there 
be  uniformity  of  action  and  a  decent  preservation  of 
order  and  propriety?  The  thing  is  impossible. 


JONATHAN   PRESCOTT  HALL          65 

Even  under  Mr.  Williams,  matters  seem  not  to  have 
been  mended  much,  or  very  harmonious  in  their  oper- 
ation: for  we  find  that  in  1638,  the  free  principles 
which  he  wished  to  establish  in  Massachusetts  did  not 
work  particularly  well  in  Rhode  Island.  "At  Provi- 
dence," says  Governor  Winthrop,  "the  devil  was  not 
idle,  for  whereas,  at  their  first  coming  thither,  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, and  the  rest,  did  make  an  order  that  no  man 
should  be  molested  for  his  conscience ;  now  men's  wives, 
and  children,  and  servants,  claimed  liberty  to  go  to  all 
religious  meetings,  though  never  so  often  or  private, 
upon  week  days ;  and  because  one  Verin  refused  to  let 
his  wife  go  to  Mr.  Williams  so  oft  as  she  was  called 
for,  they  required  to  have  him  censured;  and  some 
were  of  opinion  that  if  Verin  would  not  suffer  his  wife 
to  have  her  liberty,  the  church  should  dispose  of  her  to 
some  other  man,  who  would  use  her  better.  In  conclu- 
sion; when  they  would  have  censured  Verin,  another 
told  them  it  was  against  their  own  order ;  for  Verin  did 
what  he  did  out  of  conscience,  and  their  order  was,  that 
no  man  should  be  disturbed  for  conscience." 

But  they  whipped  the  Anabaptists  and  persecuted 
the  Quakers,  you  say?  They  moderately  punished  one 
individual  of  the  former  sect,  it  is  true,  in  the  year 
1644:  "Not,"  says  Mr.  Winthrop,  "for  his  opinions, 
but  for  his  evil  behavior,  both  at  home  and  in  court: 
he  being  a  scandalous  person,  of  loose  habits,  and  much 
given  to  lying  and  idleness."  And  as  for  the  Quakers, 
what  were  they  in  the  days  of  our  fathers  ?  Were  they 
the  decent,  orderly,  quiet  and  modest  people,  which  we 
see  now,  every  where  obedient  to  the  laws,  thrifty,  in- 
dustrious, benevolent  and  gentle?  Would  John  Win- 
throp, and  William  Bradford,  and  Francis  Higginson 
lay  their  hands,  think  ye,  upon  the  excellent  persons 
who  at  present  occupy  New  Bedford,  setting  an  exam- 


66     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

pie  of  subordination,  virtue  and  propriety,  to  all  the 
world  ?  No,  no.  The  Quakers  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury were  no  more  like  the  gentle  Friends  of  the  nine- 
teenth, than  the  latter  are  like  the  Mormons.  The  for- 
mer were  ranters  and  fanatics,  disturbers  of  public 
peace  and  decency,  entering  the  churches  during  the 
time  of  service,  in  the  most  shameless  manner,  and  in- 
sulting the  ministers  there,  in  the  administration  of 
their  sacred  office.  They  invaded  public  houses,  utter- 
ing their  wild  exhortations,  and  foaming  forth  their 
mad  opinions,  like  persons  possessed ;  disturbing,  also, 
the  relations  of  private  life,  and  meddling,  everywhere, 
with  matters  beyond  the  pale  of  propriety,  or  even  com- 
mon modesty. 

One  Eccles,  a  Quaker  tailor,  who  wrote  a  narrative 
of  his  persecutions,  as  he  termed  them,  in  1659,  de- 
clares that  he  felt  bound  to  go  to  the  steeple-house  in 
Aldermanbury  (as  he  called  the  church)  on  Sunday, 
"and  take  with  him  something  to  work  upon,  and  do 
it  in  the  pulpit,  at  their  singing  time;  and  he  carried 
with  him  a  pocket  to  sew."  Making  his  way  with  pro- 
verbial slyness  into  the  pulpit,  he  sat  himself,  he  says, 
"upon  the  cushion  with  his  feet  upon  the  seat  where 
the  priest,  when  he  has  told  out  his  lies,  doth  sit,"  and 
pulling  out  his  pocket,  went  to  work.  Was  it  not  a 
marvellous  persecution,  that  the  people  thus  disturbed, 
should  have  taken  this  insane  zealot  before  a  magis- 
trate for  punishment? 

George  Fox  himself,  entered  "a  steeple-house,"  and 
cried  out  to  the  minister,  in  the  time  of  divine  service, 
"come  down,  thou  deceiver ;"  and  on  another  occasion, 
approaching  Lichfield,  he  pulled  off  his  shoes  and 
walked  barefoot  through  the  place,  crying  out  "woe  to 
the  bloody  city."  But  even  men  like  these  were  mild 
and  decent,  in  comparison  with  others  of  their  sect, 


JONATHAN   PRESCOTT  HALL          67 

who  were  carried  away  by  the  wildest  impulses  of 
phrenzy  and  fanaticism,  putting  the  followers  of  Ma- 
thias  even  to  the  blush ;  and  against  such  public  disturb- 
ers as  these,  the  colony  laws  were  directed. 

These  laws  were  at  first  mild  and  gentle,  and  in  1659, 
Plymouth,  by  statute,  made  a  proposition  to  the  Quak- 
ers, that  if  they  would  depart  out  of  their  jurisdiction 
within  six  months,  no  fines  should  be  exacted  of  them ; 
promising  that  such  of  them  as  were  poor  should  be 
supplied  out  of  the  public  treasury.  And  to  show  the 
desire  they  had  of  preserving  their  own  institutions 
merely,  within  their  own  jurisdiction,  banishment  from 
the  Province,  was  in  almost  all  cases,  the  first  penalty 
prescribed  for  offences  of  this  character.  As  measures 
of  a  mild  nature  were  of  no  effect,  the  laws  became 
more  stringent,  and  it  was  then  enacted,  that  if  "ran- 
ters, Quakers,  and  other  such  vagabonds,"  should  come 
within  any  town,  they  might  be  seized  and  whipped 
with  a  rod,  not  exceeding  fifteen  stripes,  and  a  pass 
given  them  to  depart  out  of  the  government.  Asso- 
ciate this  law  with  the  image  of  the  gentle  Friend  of 
our  day,  with  his  modest  coat  and  quiet  manners,  and 
it  becomes  absurd.  But  associate  it  with  Mathias, 
wandering  about  the  streets  of  New  York,  uttering  his 
disgusting  blasphemies  to  curious  crowds  and  deceived 
proselytes,  and  I  think  you  would  certainly  bestow 
upon  him  at  least  fifteen  stripes  with  a  rod  before  you 
gave  him  a  pass  to  depart  from  the  government.  But 
if  our  ancestors  were  too  severe  in  their  measures  for 
the  suppression  of  "ranters,  and  such  like  vagabonds," 
they  were  not  a  whit  more  severe  than  the  English 
themselves ;  for  we  find  that  one  James  Naylor,  a  con- 
vert of  George  Fox,  the  great  founder  of  the  sect,  was 
condemned  to  death  for  his  extravagancies  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  1656.  Even  the  mild  and  ex- 


68     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

cellent  William  Penn  himself  could  hardly  tolerate 
them;  saying  that  they  were  troublesome  to  the  better 
sort,  and  furnished  an  occasion  for  the  looser  to  blas- 
pheme. 

In  considering  the  character  and  conduct  of  those 
who  lived  and  conducted  the  affairs  of  government, 
with  the  administration  of  its  laws,  two  centuries  ago, 
we  should  view  them,  not  with  eyes  which  have  seen  all 
the  changes  of  thoughts,  and  all  the  improvements 
which  that  long  period  has  produced,  but  they  should 
be  judged  by  the  sentiments  which  prevailed  in  their 
time,  and  the  lights  by  which  they  themselves  were 
then  guided.  It  is  an  easy  thing  now  to  ridicule  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  concerning  witchcraft,  and  hurl 
anathemas  against  the  pious  men  who  carried  them  into 
effect.  But  what  was  the  state  of  public  opinion 
throughout  the  whole  Christian  world  upon  this  sub- 
ject at  that  time?  Was  New  England  the  only  spot 
where  laws  of  this  nature  were  enacted?  Had  old 
England  no  statutes  upon  the  subject?  Or  if  they  re- 
mained upon  the  record,  had  they,  by  disuse  become 
obsolete  and  forgotten? 

"To  deny,"  says  Blackstone,  in  his  commentaries, 
written  more  than  seventy  years  after  all  trials  for  this 
crime  in  New  England  had  ceased ;  "to  deny  the  possi- 
bility, nay,  actual  existence,  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery, 
is  at  once  flatly  to  contradict  the  revealed  word  of  God, 
in  various  passages  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment; and  the  thing  itself  is  a  truth  to  which  every 
nation  in  the  world,  hath  in  its  turn  borne  testimony, 
either  by  examples  seemingly  well  attested,  or  by  pro- 
hibitory laws.  The  civil  law  punishes  with  death,  not 
only  the  sorcerers  themselves,  but  also  those  who  con- 
sult them,  imitating  in  the  former  the  express  law  of 
God,  'thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live/  And  our 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          69 

laws,  both  before  and  since  the  conquest,  have  been 
equally  penal,  ranking  this  crime  in  the  same  class  with 
heresy,  and  condemning  both  to  the  flames." 

Laws  of  the  severest  kind  against  this  supposed  of- 
fence, were  passed  in  England,  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Eighth;  repeated  and  extended  during  that 
of  James  the  First ;  and  continued  on  their  statute  books 
down  to  the  year  1736,  when,  in  the  ninth  year  of 
George  the  Second's  reign  it  was  enacted,  that  prosecu- 
tions should  not,  from  that  time  forward,  be  carried  on 
against  any  person  for  conjuration,  witchcraft,  en- 
chantment, or  sorcery;  leaving  however,  upon  the  face 
of  the  law  itself,  an  implied  belief  in  their  existence. 

Who  was  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  and  when  did  he  live? 
He  was  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  at  one 
period  of  his  life,  and  died  in  the  year  1676,  one  of  the 
most  learned,  just,  and  upright  of  all  the  magistrates 
that  ever  presided  in  an  English  court.  And  did  he 
never  try  witches?  Why,  under  his  administration, 
and  those  of  other  learned  and  high  minded  judges  of 
that  time,  more  persons  were  put  to  death  for  this  crime 
of  witchcraft,  in  a  single  county  of  England,  in  a  brief 
space,  than  ever  suffered  in  all  the  States  of  New  Eng- 
land, from  the  time  of  their  settlement  to  the  day  when 
the  delusion  passed  away,  and,  as  I  trust,  for  ever  from 
the  annals  of  mankind.  No  execution  for  conjuration 
or  sorcery  ever  took  place  in  New  England,  I  believe, 
after  the  year  1693;  but  in  old  England,  death  con- 
tinued to  be  inflicted  for  the  same  offences  as  late  as 
1722;  showing  conclusively  that  the  crime  had  not  its 
"local  habitation  and  name"  in  Massachusetts  alone. 

But  how  much  have  we  improved,  upon  the  score  of 
superstition,  even  in  these  enlightened  times?  In  what 
days  of  New  England  history  can  you  find  anything  so 
monstrous  and  revolting  as  the  Mormon  superstition, 


crime  or  folly,  which  is  now  before  your  eyes  ?  When 
did  Jemima  Wilkinson  flourish?  And  where  did  a 
reverend  fanatic  speak  to  deluded  crowds  in  unknown 
tongues  ?  No !  credulity  and  superstition  are  not  con- 
fined to  particular  periods  or  places;  but  are  of  all 
times,  and  in  every  part  of  the  world;  and  happy  are 
they  who  escape  their  influence. 

In  paying  a  tribute  to  the  merits  of  our  dead  ances- 
tors, let  not  their  modesty  and  freedom  from  ambition 
be  forgotten.  To  discharge  their  duty  before  God  and 
man  was  their  only  aspiration.  Power  and  place  of- 
fered no  temptations  to  their  chastened  minds.  No 
matter  in  what  condition  man,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances may  be  placed,  whether  as  the  Inca  of  Peru, 
surrounded  by  ingots  of  gold  and  pyramids  of  silver,  or 
as  the  poverty-stricken  sachem  of  a  northern  tribe, 
without  wealth,  or  comfort,  or  outward  signs  of 
magnificence ;  power  is  nevertheless  the  strongest  temp- 
tation to  ambitious  souls.  In  the  desire  for  its  posses- 
sion, all  other  earthly  regards  are  absorbed ;  fraud,  vio- 
lence, and  corruption,  are  invoked  for  its  acquirement; 
the  endearments  of  home,  the  consciousness  of  right, 
the  obligations  of  virtue,  and  the  sanctions  of  religion 
are  all  forgotten,  while  the  human  energies  are  concen- 
trated into  one  fierce  and  inextinguishable  motive.  For 
it,  man  spurns  the  rights  of  his  fellow  man ;  disregards 
the  obligations  of  duty;  despises  present  retribution, 
and  tempts  that  which  is  to  come. 

In  what  strong  contrast  with  all  that  we  see  exhib- 
ited, day  by  day,  upon  the  busy  theatre  of  human  af- 
fairs at  this  time,  does  the  conduct  of  the  Pilgrims 
appear?  Simple,  unambitious,  conscientious,  and  de- 
voted; considering  power  as  a  burden  which  all  were 
bound  to  endure,  they  assumed  its  cares  without  covet- 
ing its  honors.  There  was  no  strife  among  them  as 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          ^\ 

to  which  should  be  greatest.  Far  from  it.  William 
Bradford  having  been  repeatedly  elected  Governor, 
"got  off"  on  one  occasion,  "by  importunity."  "If  this 
appointment,"  said  he,  "was  an  honor  or  benefit,  others 
beside  himself  should  partake  of  it;  if  it  were  a  burden, 
others  beside  himself  should  help  to  bear  it."  Nor 
was  this  feeling  peculiar  to  him,  for  we  find  that  in  the 
year  1632,  it  was  solemnly  enacted  at  Plymouth,  "that 
if  then,  or  thereafter,"  any  were  elected  to  the  office 
of  Governor,  and  would  not  stand  to  the  election,  nor 
hold  and  execute  the  office  for  his  year,  that  then,  he  be 
amerced  in  twenty  pounds  sterling,  fine.  And  if  any 
were  elected  to  the  office  of  Counsel,  and  refused  to  hold 
the  place,  that  he  be  amerced  in  ten  pounds,  sterling." 
There  is  some  reason  to  suspect,  however  much  we  may 
have  adhered  to  the  customs  of  our  Pilgrim  ancestors, 
that  in  this  particular,  we  are  somewhat  degenerated. 

We  have  thus  seen  who  the  first  planters  of  New 
England  were,  and  the  causes  which  led  to  the  great 
enterprise  of  establishing  colonies  upon  our  north-At- 
lantic shores.  We  have  seen  that  they  were  men  im- 
bued with  morals,  sound  and  practical,  though  severe; 
of  principles  high-minded  and  pure,  though  firm  and 
unyielding;  of  a  religious  faith  and  temperament, 
heated  perhaps,  by  zeal  to  observances  over-strict  and 
formal :  yet  kind,  tolerant  and  forgiving.  We  have 
seen  them  everywhere  carrying  out  the  purposes  and 
fulfilling  the  designs  for  which  they  emigrated.  The 
darkness  of  the  forest  gave  way  before  the  vigorous 
strokes  of  the  woodman ;  the  hum  of  the  mill  was  min- 
gled with  the  dash  of  the  waterfall ;  the  noise  of  the 
hammer  was  heard  in  the  solitude  of  the  desert,  and  the 
lowing  of  herds  penetrated  to  the  abodes  of  the  wolf 
and  the  panther;  the  hill-side  reflected  back  the  gleam 
of  the  ploughshare,  and  the  plains  waved  with  the 


72     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

golden  plumage  of  the  harvest;  the  wild  incantations 
of  the  savage  gave  place  to  psalms  of  thanksgiving  and 
the  song  of  praise;  while  civilization  advanced  every- 
where over  the  land,  sounding  its  glad  voice,  and  pour- 
ing out  its  blessings. 

The  progress  of  those  little  bands,  from  small  begin- 
nings to  considerable  communities ;  from  these  commu- 
nities to  separate  and  independent  States;  and  from 
such  States,  to  a  harmonious  union  of  all  their  descen- 
dants, under  one  common  government,  wisely  con- 
structed, powerfully  maintained,  and  eminently  respect- 
able; may  be  easily  traced,  when  the  sources  of  the 
mighty  current,  flowing  so  steadily  on,  are  once  well 
known. 

The  principles  inculcated  by  our  fathers,  the  educa- 
tion they  bestowed  upon  their  children,  and  the  habits 
of  patience,  long-suffering,  and  perseverance  in  which 
they  were  trained,  could  not  fail  to  have  an  influence, 
deep  and  abiding,  upon  their  characters.  Standing  by 
their  chartered  rights  on  all  occasions,  when  attacked, 
conscious  that  they  were  entitled  to  the  immunities  and 
privileges  for  which  they  had  toiled  so  long,  and  suf- 
fered so  much,  the  Pilgrims  and  their  descendants  were 
not  likely  to  submit  with  tameness  to  wrongs  and  op- 
pressions, come  from  what  source  they  might. 

The  contests  in  which  they  were  involved  with  the 
natives,  after  the  termination  of  Philip's  war,  the  blood 
which  they  poured  from  their  veins,  and  the  desolations 
which  came  upon  their  borders,  had  been  occasioned, 
for  the  most  part,  by  controversies  between  the  mother- 
country  and  her  European  neighbors,  in  which  the  colo- 
nies were  compelled  to  take  part.  But  they  "remem- 
bered that  they  were  Englishmen,"  and  bore  their 
portion  of  the  burthens  of  war  with  patience  and  cour- 
age, murmuring  at  none  of  these  things ;  for  wherever 


JONATHAN   PRESCOTT  HALL          73 

the  British  flag  waved  on  this  continent,  the  sons  of 
New  England  could  be  found  marshalled  under  it,  and 
standing  side  by  side  with  their  kinsmen. 

But  their  sympathies  were  always  on  the  part  of  lib- 
erty, and  from  the  beginning,  they  were  essentially  re- 
publican. Hence,  though  not  engaged  in  the  conflict 
between  the  king  and  his  parliaments,  their  hearts  were 
always  with  the  people.  They  rejoiced  in  their  suc- 
cess, they  mourned  over  their  misfortunes;  nor  was  it  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  in  the  colonies,  when  the 
news  came  that  the  independent  churches  had  estab- 
lished for  themselves  equality  of  rights,  in  the  land 
where  they  were  originally  formed. 

"Full  little  did  I  think,"  exclaimed  that  stout  old 
Puritan,  Governor  Bradford,  "full  little  did  I  think 
that  the  downfall  of  the  bishops,  with  their  courts,  their 
canons,  and  ceremonies,  had  been  so  near  when  I  first 
began  this  writing,  in  1630;  or  that  I  should  have  lived 
to  have  seen  or  heard  the  same.  And  do  ye  now  see 
the  fruits  of  your  labors,  ye  little  band  amongst  the 
rest,  the  least  amongst  the  thousands  of  Israel?  But 
who  hath  done  it?  Even  He,  who  sitteth  upon  the 
white  horse :  who  is  called  faithful  and  true,  and  judg- 
eth  and  fighteth  righteously.  It  is  He  that  treadeth 
the  wine  press,  and  hath  upon  his  garment  and  upon  his 
thigh  a  name  written,  the  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of 
Lords  1" 

After  that  great  revolution,  which  was  the  prelude 
merely,  to  the  still  greater  one,  which  finally  expelled 
the  Stuarts  from  the  British  throne,  the  people  of  New 
England  steadily  adhered  to  their  early  principles,  and 
hence  they  furnished  a  refuge  to  such  of  King  Charles' 
judges  as  escaped  to  their  country,  desolate  and  for- 
lorn. They  did  not  look  upon  them  as  regicides,  who 
had  murdered  their  sovereign,  but  in  the  language  of 


74     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Bradshaw's  epitaph,  as  a  part  of  "that  band  of  heroes 
and  patriots,  who  had  fairly  and  openly  adjudged 
Charles  Stuart,  tyrant  of  England,  to  a  public  and  ex- 
emplary death ;  thereby  presenting  to  the  amazed  world, 
and  transmitting  down,  through  applauding  ages  the 
most  glorious  example  of  unshaken  virtue,  love  of  free- 
dom and  impartial  justice,  ever  exhibited  on  the  blood- 
stained theatre  of  human  action !" 

These  principles,  and  these  sentiments,  they  main- 
tained, and  in  Boston  boldly  avowed  and  acted  upon, 
even  before  tidings  of  the  expulsion  of  James  from  his 
throne  had  reached  their  glad  and  expecting  ears.  As 
good  citizens,  as  obedient  subjects,  they  remained  dur- 
ing the  reigns  of  his  daughters,  and  the  first  two  of 
their  successors  from  Hanover;  cherishing  their  free 
institutions,  and,  what  was  more,  maintaining  their  in- 
dependent sentiments  with  the  unconquerable  resolu- 
tion of  intelligent  minds. 

How  unwise  then  in  the  mother  country;  how  dan- 
gerous to  wound  the  feelings  of  attachment  which 
bound  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  early 
home  of  their  fathers.  How  unjust  to  attempt  to  re- 
strain their  energies,  circumscribe  their  powers,  and 
subdue  their  spirit.  Were  men  like  these  ever  intended 
to  be  mere  "hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,"  for 
taskmasters  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic?  Were 
the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims  like  the  children  of  Issachar, 
"a  strong  ass  couching  down  between  two  burdens?" 
Were  they  likely  to  "see  that  rest  was  good,  and  the 
land  pleasant,"  and  so  "bow  their  shoulders  to  bear, 
and  become  servants  unto  tribute?"  No,  no.  Eng- 
land should  have  remembered  that  "Judah  was  a  lion's 
whelp,  and  that  his  hand  would  be  in  the  neck  of  his 
enemies." 

A  writer,  to  me  unknown,  who  composed  a  preface 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          75 

to  an  edition  of  Hubbard's  wars,  printed  in  Boston, 
shortly  before  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  speaking  of 
his  ancestors,  observes,  that  however  they  may  have 
been  misrepresented,  they  were  men  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy.  "According  to  the  usual  course  of 
things,"  says  he,  "in  this  depraved  and  mutable  state, 
their  descendants,  at  this  day,  as  might  be  expected, 
have,  in  a  measure,  departed  from  that  simplicity  of 
manners  by  which  their  renowned  ancestors  were  dis- 
tinguished. We,  of  this  province,  have  been  called 
upon,  from  an  early  period,  to  defend  our  lives  and 
property  against  more  distant  savages.  Our  trust  has 
been  in  our  fathers'  God,  and  hitherto,  he  hath  deliv- 
ered us.  Our  frontier  settlements  are  exposed  to  sav- 
age invasion ;  and,  though  we  trust  not  in  our  own  bow, 
we  are  all  armed  and  prepared  for  a  defensive  war !" 

Who  were  the  savages  hinted  at  here,  as  nearer  than 
those  more  distant  ones,  who  had  formerly  assailed  the 
frontier  settlements?  Against  whom  did  the  descen- 
dants of  the  Pilgrims  then  stand,  all  armed  and  pre- 
pared for  a  defensive  war  ?  Could  not  those,  who  con- 
trolled the  destinies  of  Britain,  hear  the  mutterings  of 
the  distant  thunder,  in  these  audible  breathings-out  of 
a  suppressed,  but  concentrated  and  indomitable  spirit? 
Could  nothing  but  the  fierce  lightning  of  the  battle,  and 
the  peltings  of  the  pitiless  storm  of  war  arouse  them  to 
the  recollection,  that  the  fathers  of  these  men  were  Eng- 
lishmen, who  came  over  the  great  ocean,  and  that  their 
children  would  perish  in  this  wilderness,  rather  than 
bear  anything  here,  which  would  not  be  borne  at  home  ? 

The  same  spirit  which  had  planted  the  colonies,  sus- 
tained and  supported  them  through  the  whole  Revolu- 
tionary struggle;  so  desolating,  so  unequal,  so  fierce, 
and  unrelenting.  The  history  of  that  event  is  so  re- 
markable, when  carefully  examined,  as  to  excite  aston- 


76     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ishment,  if  not  incredulity ;  and  if  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence ever  did  interpose  directly  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
surely,  its  cloud  by  day,  and  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  may 
be  seen  and  traced  through  all  the  long  and  wearisome 
years  of  that  eventful  contest. 

Severed  then,  and  forever,  were  the  silver  cords, 
which  bound  distant,  but  affectionate  colonies  to  their 
parent  country.  The  golden  bowl  had  been  broken  at 
the  fountain.  With  ruthless  violence  it  had  been 
dashed  down,  and  its  fragments  in  after  times,  were 
never  to  be  gathered  up  by  the  parent  hand.  But  all 
the  fruits  of  that  vine  which  God  had  planted  in  the 
wilderness,  were  to  remain  to  the  descendants  of  those 
who  had  nurtured  and  nourished  it,  even  with  their 
tears  and  with  their  blood.  Its  branches  were  destined 
to  shoot  forth  and  spread  out,  and  extend  and  blossom 
in  the  unknown  and  unthought-of  depths  of  that  vast 
continent,  where  its  roots  had  struck  so  firmly  and  so 
deep. 

Equal  rights  and  equal  privileges  for  all  men,  were 
then  and  there  secured;  and  as  I  trust,  made  safe  and 
enduring  for  ever.  Freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of 
action  under  proper  restraints,  the  inestimable  gift  of 
self-government,  were  each  and  all  of  them  bestowed 
upon  us  by  our  fathers,  at  the  close  of  that  great  drama, 
in  which  they,  and  the  principal  nations  of  Europe  were 
finally  actors.  They  established  institutions,  which  we 
are  bound  by  all  the  sacred  obligations  of  filial  affec- 
tion, of  parental  reverence,  and  common  gratitude,  to 
preserve  and  maintain,  and  hand  down  to  those  who 
may  come  after  us.  And  by  all  these  great  and  hal- 
lowed recollections,  we  will  maintain  and  preserve  and 
hand  them  down,  that  no  reproach  may  come  upon  us 
or  our  generation.  That  education  we  have  received, 
we  will  transmit;  that  language  taught  to  us,  we  will 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          77 

teach  to  others ;  those  principles  in  which  we  have  been 
wrapped  as  with  a  mantle,  we  will  bequeath  to  poster- 
ity, as  the  last,  best  gift,  which  one  generation  can  be- 
stow upon  another. 

The  seeds  sown  by  the  Mayflower,  shall  be  borne  and 
wafted  on  the  gentle  winds  of  heaven,  to  every  part  of 
this  vast  continent,  to  spring  up  thirty,  sixty,  and  an 
hundred  fold,  in  the  blossoms  of  that  glorious  and 
never-dying  plant. 

The  dove  which  was  sent  out  from  the  Ark,  was  to 
explore  the  face  of  the  waters,  to  see  where  rest  could 
be  found  for  the  sole  of  her  foot.  The  dove  which 
went  forth  from  the  Mayflower,  carried  in  her  beak  a 
leaf  of  the  olive  which  was  to  be  planted,  and  take  root, 
and  grow  and  flourish,  after  the  great  waters  of  toil, 
and  suffering,  and  trial,  and  Revolution,  should  have 
subsided. 

The  land  is  visible  to  us  on  every  side,  fertile  and 
pleasant  as  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  It  was  given  to  us 
as  an  inheritance;  as  an  inheritance  we  will  preserve 
it.  Our  tears  did  not  water  it ;  our  blood  did  not  nour- 
ish it;  our  toil  did  not  smooth  down  its  surface;  but 
we  are  bound  to  it  by  the  blood,  and  the  tears,  and  the 
toil  of  our  fathers ;  and  by  all  these  sacred  obligations 
we  will  guard  it. 

The  great  orator  of  our  time,  and  of  his  race,  in  his 
eloquent  and  profoundly  philosophical  discourse,  deliv- 
ered at  Plymouth  in  the  year  1820,  speaking  of  his  own 
native  and  beloved  New  England,  expresses  himself  in 
these  words : 

"Instead  of  being  confined  to  its  former  limits,  her 
population  has  rolled  backward  and  filled  up  the  spaces 
included  within  her  actual  local  boundaries.  Not  this 
only,  but  it  has  overflowed  those  boundaries  and  the 
waves  of  emigration  have  pressed  farther  and  farther 


78     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

towards  the  West.  The  Alleghany  has  not  checked  it, 
the  banks  of  the  Ohio  have  been  covered  with  it.  Two 
thousand  miles  westward  from  the  rock  where  their 
fathers  landed,  may  now  be  found  the  sons  of  the  Pil- 
grims, cultivating  smiling  fields,  rearing  towns  and 
villages,  and  cherishing  the  patrimonial  blessings  of 
wise  institutions,  of  liberty  and  religion."  "It  may  be 
safely  asserted  that  there  are  now  more  than  a  million 
of  people,  descendants  of  New  England  ancestry,  living 
free  and  happy  in  regions  which,  hardly  sixty  years 
ago,  were  tracts  of  unpenetrated  forest.  Nor  do  riv- 
ers, or  mountains,  or  seas,  resist  the  progress  of  indus- 
try and  enterprise;  and  ere  long  the  sons  of  the  Pil- 
grims will  be  upon  the  shores  of  the  Pacific." 

This  prophecy,  made  just  twenty-seven  years  ago, 
has  become  history  within  that  brief  space  of  time. 
The  million  of  the  descendants  of  New  England  pa- 
rentage here  referred  to,  may,  in  all  probability,  be 
found  in  Ohio  alone.  The  boundaries  of  the  great 
rivers  have  been  overleaped.  The  sterile  plains,  and 
still  more  sterile  hills,  beyond  the  Mississippi,  have 
been  traversed.  The  barrier  of  the  Alleghanies  has 
presented  no  resistance;  the  Rocky  Mountains  them- 
selves have  been  scaled ;  the  stormy  Cape  has  been  dou- 
bled ;  and  now  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims  stand  upon  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  They  stand  there  with  no  eye 
turned  towards  the  rising  sun,  except  for  the  cheering 
warmth  of  his  kindred  rays.  They  stand  there  with 
no  fainting  resolution,  no  faltering  thought  of  return. 
As  their  march  was  westward,  so,  with  an  intrepid 
front,  they  follow  the  sun  in  his  flight,  and  look  out 
upon  the  broad  Pacific  to  see  in  what  distant  land  he 
hides  his  fading  beams.  That  piercing  gaze  will  never 
cease  until  the  mystery  has  been  solved.  The  isles  of 


JONATHAN  PRESCOTT  HALL          79 

the  sea  will  be  measured;  the  spherical  form  of  the 
globe  itself  be  proved  by  American  exploration;  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons  of  this  continent,  steadily  pursuing 
the  onward  progress  of  their  career,  will  put  a  girdle 
around  the  earth,  and  yet  come  back  to  the  Rock  of 
Plymouth,  from  whence  they  originally  set  forth. 


THE  FOUNDERS,  GREAT  IN  THEIR 
UNCONSCIOUSNESS 


HORACE   BUSHNELL,  D.D. 
1849 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 
(1802-1876.) 

OUT  of  a  life  of  seventy-four  years  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  had 
but  twenty-five  of  activity  in  his  chosen  work.  These  were 
spent  in  the  North  Church,  Hartford,  but  their  influence  went 
far  beyond  its  circle  and  opened  a  broader  vision  for  his  gen- 
eration and  for  this.  Outside  his  work  as  student  and  teacher, 
Dr.  Bushnell  was  a  citizen  of  such  stamp  that  Hartford  honors 
his  memory  as  of  one  whose  work  has  left  on  the  town  its 
distinct  mark.  It  was  in  the  year  of  his  address  before  the 
New  England  Society — 1849 — that  his  book  "God  in  Christ"  ap- 
peared. This  work  raised  to  its  fiercest  height  the  storm  of 
adverse  criticism  that  throughout  his  life  met  this  independent 
thinker.  Dr.  Bushnell's  address  is  less  rhetorical  than  many  of 
the  orations  of  this  collection,  less  eloquent  than  others  of  Dr. 
Bushnell's  speeches,  yet  it  is  virile  in  style  and  original  in 
thought.  One  can  fancy  the  gleam  of  the  dark  eyes  as  he  talked 
of  the  great  men  of  the  past,  of  the  great  days  of  the  future, 
in  words  not  unworthy  of  his  own  brave  and  vigorous  spirit, 
nor  of  the  Tabernacle  whose  walls  had  heard  and  were  yet  to 
hear  mighty  voices. 


ORATION 


Gentlemen  of  the  New  England  Society: 

IT  is  a  filial  sentiment,  most  honorably  signified  by 
you,  in  the  organization  of  your  Society,  and  the 
regular  observance  of  this  anniversary,  that  the  found- 
ers and  first  fathers  of  states  are  entitled  to  the  highest 
honors.  You  agree  in  this  with  the  fine  philosophic 
scale  of  awards,  offered  by  Lord  Bacon,  when  he  says, 
"The  true  marshalling  of  the  degrees  of  sovereign  hon- 
ors are  these :  In  the  first  place,  are  Conditores;  found- 
ers of  states.  In  the  second  place,  are  Legislator es; 
lawgivers,  which  are  sometimes  called  second-founders, 
or  Perpctui  Principes,  because  they  govern  by  their  or- 
dinances after  they  are  gone.  In  the  third  place,  are 
Liberatores;  such  as  compound  the  long  miseries  of 
civil  wars,  or  deliver  their  countries  from  servitude  of 
strangers  or  tyrants.  In  the  fourth  place,  are  Propa- 
gatores,  or  Propugnatores  imperil;  such  as  in  honor- 
able wars  enlarge  their  territories,  or  make  noble  de- 
fence against  invaders.  And  in  the  last  place,  Patres 
patria,  which  reign  justly,  and  make  the  times  good 
wherein  they  live." 

Holding  this  true  scale  of  honor,  which  you  may  the 
more  heartily  do,  because  you  have  fathers  who  are  en- 
titled to  reverence  for  their  worth  as  well  as  their  his- 
toric position,  you  have  undertaken  to  remember,  and 

83 


84     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

with  due  observances  to  celebrate,  each  year,  this  twen- 
ty-second day  of  December,  as  the  day  Conditorum  Rei- 
publica.  Be  it  evermore  a  day,  such  as  may  fitly  head 
the  calendar  of  our  historic  honors ;  a  day  that  remem- 
bers with  thoughtful  respect  and  reverence  the  patience 
of  oppressed  virtue,  the  sacrifices  of  duty,  and  the  sol- 
emn fatherhood  of  religion; — a  register  also  of  prog- 
ress, showing  every  year  by  what  new  triumphs  and  re- 
sults of  good,  spreading  in  wider  circles  round  the 
globe,  that  Being  whose  appropriate  work  it  is  to  crown 
the  fidelity  of  faithful  men,  is  Himself  justifying  your 
homage,  and  challenging  the  homage  of  mankind. 

Meantime,  be  this  one  caution  faithfully  observed, 
that  all  prescriptive  and  stipulated  honors  have  it  as 
their  natural  infirmity  to  issue  in  extravagant  and 
forced  commendations,  and  so  to  mar  not  seldom  the 
reverence  they  would  fortify.  We  pay  the  truest  hon- 
ors to  men  that  are  worthy,  not  by  saying  all  imagina- 
ble good  concerning  them :  least  of  all  can  we  do  fit 
honor,  in  this  manner,  to  the  fathers  of  New  England. 
It  as  little  suits  the  dignity  of  truth,  as  the  iron  rigor 
of  the  men.  If  it  be  true,  as  we  often  hear,  that  one 
may  be  most  effectually  "damned  by  faint  praise;"  it 
may  also  be  done  as  fatally,  by  what  is  even  more  un- 
just and,  to  genuine  merit,  more  insupportable,  by 
over-vehement  and  undistinguishing  eulogy.  We  make 
allowance  for  the  subtractions  of  envy;  but  when  love 
invents  fictitious  grounds  of  applause,  we  imagine  some 
fatal  defect  of  those  which  are  real  and  true.  There  is 
no  genuine  praise  but  the  praise  of  justice : 

"For  fame  impatient  of  extremes,  decays 
Not  less  by  envy,  than  excess  of  praise." 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  85 

In  this  view,  it  will  not  be  an  offence  to  you,  I  trust, 
or  be  deemed  adverse  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  occasion, 
if  I  suggest  the  conviction  that  our  New  England  fa- 
thers have  sometimes  suffered  in  this  manner — not  by 
any  conscious  design  to  over-magnify  their  merit,  but 
by  the  amiable  zeal  of  inconsiderate  and  partially  quali- 
fied eulogy.  In  particular,  it  has  seemed  to  me  to 
be  a  frequent  detraction  from  their  merit  that  results 
are  ascribed  to  their  wisdom,  or  sagacious  forethought 
as  projectors,  which  never  even  came  into  their  thoughts 
at  all ;  and  which,  taken  only  as  proofs  of  a  Providen- 
tial purpose  working  in  them,  and  of  God's  faithful 
adherence  to  their  history,  would  have  yielded  a  more 
reverent  tribute  to  Him,  and  raised  them  also  to  a  far 
higher  pitch  of  sublimity  in  excellence.  The  very 
greatness  of  these  men,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  their  un- 
consciousness. It  is  that  so  little  conceiving  the  future 
they  had  in  them,  they  had  a  future  so  magnificent — 
that  God  was  in  them  in  a  latent  power  of  divinity  and 
world-disposing  counsel  which  they  did  not  suspect,  in 
a  wisdom  wiser  than  they  knew,  in  principles  more 
quickening  and  transforming  than  they  could  even  im- 
agine themselves,  and  was  thus  preparing  in  them,  to 
lift  the  whole  race  into  a  higher  plane  of  existence,  and 
one  as  much  closer  to  Himself. 

And  just  here  is  the  difficulty  that  most  consciously 
oppresses  me  in  the  engagement  of  the  present  occasion. 
It  is  to  praise  these  great  men  justly — to  say  what  is 
fit  to  them  and  not  unfit  to  God.  It  is  to  make  uncon- 
sciousness in  good  the  crown  of  sublimity  in  good;  to 
set  it  forth  as  their  special  glory,  in  this  view,  that  they 
executed  by  duty  and  the  stern  fidelity  of  their  lives, 
what  they  never  propounded  in  theory,  or  set  up  as  a 
mark  of  attainment — so  to  meet  the  spirit  of  the  occa- 


86     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

sion,  and  to  raise  in  you  the  fit  measure  of  enthusiasm, 
by  the  sober  wine  alone  of  justice  and  truth. 

Do  I  then  deny  what  has  been  so  often  observed  in 
the  great  characters  of  history,  that  they  commonly  act 
their  part  under  a  visible  sense  or  presentiment  of  the 
greatness  of  their  mission?  Is  it  a  fiction  that  they 
are  thus  exalted  in  it,  made  impassible,  borne  along  as 
by  some  fate  or  destiny,  or,  to  give  it  a  more  Christian 
name,  some  inspiration  or  call  of  God?  Nothing  is 
more  true ;  it  is  in  fact  the  standing  distinction,  the  sub- 
limity itself  of  greatness. 

"Souls  destined  to  o'erleap  the  vulgar  lot, 
And  mould  the  world  unto  the  scheme  of  God, 
Have  a  fore-consciousness  of  their  high  doom." 

Ignorant  of  this,  we  cannot  understand  what  great- 
ness is.  To  us  it  no  longer  exists.  But  we  need,  in 
the  acceptance  of  a  truth  so  ennobling  to  human  his- 
tory, to  affix  those  terms  and  restrictions  under  which 
it  is  practically  manifested,  else  we  make  even  history 
itself  fantastic  or  incredible. 

Whoever  appears  to  assert  any  great  truth  of  science 
or  religion,  wanted  by  his  age,  ought  to  feel  an  immov- 
able conviction  that  the  truth  asserted  will  prevail,  else 
he  is  no  fit  champion.  But  as  regards  the  particular 
effects  it  will  produce  in  human  society;  these  he  can- 
not definitely  trace.  He  can  only  know  that,  falling 
into  the  great  currents  of  causes,  complex  and  multi- 
tudinous as  they  are,  some  good  and  beneficent  results 
will  follow,  that  are  worthy  of  its  divine  scope  and 
order.  In  like  manner,  the  hero  of  an  occasion,  ex- 
alted by  the  occasion  to  be  God's  instrument,  we  may 
believe  is  sometimes  gifted  with  a  confidence  that  is 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  87 

nearly  prophetic,  and  by  force  of  which  he  is  able  to 
inspire  others  with  a  courage  equal  to  the  greatness 
of  the  encounter.  Thus  it  was  that  Luther,  in  virtue 
of  a  confidence  that  other  men  had  not,  became  the  hero 
of  the  Reformation.  But  when  we  speak  of  inven- 
tions, institutions,  policies,  migrations,  revolutions, 
which  are  not  single  truths  or  occasions,  but  inaugu- 
rations of  causes  that  can  reveal  their  issues  only  in  the 
lapse  of  centuries,  the  projectors  and  leaders  in  these 
can  be  sure,  at  most,  only  of  the  grand  ideal  that  in- 
spires them;  but  by  what  medial  changes  and  turns  of 
history  God  will  bring  it  to  pass,  or  in  what  definite 
forms  of  social  good  it  will  finally  clothe  itself,  they 
can  but  dimly  conceive. 

And  this  is  what  I  mean,  when  I  speak  of  the  uncon- 
scious, or  undesigning  agency  of  the  fathers  of  New 
England,  considered  as  the  authors  of  those  great  po- 
litical and  social  issues  which  we  just  now  look  upon  as 
the  highest  and  crowning  distinctions  of  our  history. 
Their  ideal  was  not  in  these,  but  in  issues  still  farther 
on  and  more  magnificent,  to  which  these  are  only  Prov- 
idential media  or  means.  Occupied  by  the  splendor  of 
these  medial  stages  of  advancement,  and  unable  to  im- 
agine any  thing  yet  more  glorious  to  be  revealed  here- 
after, we  conclude  that  we  have  reached  the  final  result 
and  historic  completion  of  our  destiny;  and  then  we 
cast  about  us  to  ask  what  our  sublime  fathers  at- 
tempted, and  settle  a  final  judgment  of  their  merits. 
Sometimes  we  smile  at  their  simplicity,  finding  that  the 
highest  hope  they  conceived  in  their  migration,  was 
nothing  but  the  hope  of  some  good  issue  for  religion ! 
We  secretly  wonder,  or,  it  may  be,  openly  express  our 
regret,  that  they  could  not  have  had  some  conception 
of  the  magnificent  results  of  liberty  and  social  order 
that  were  here  to  be  revealed.  And  in  this  view,  we 


88     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

often  set  ourselves  to  it,  as  a  kind  of  filial  duty,  to 
make  out  for  them  what  we  so  much  desire. 

Who  of  us,  meantime,  is  able,  for  once,  to  imagine 
that  the  shortness  may  be  ours,  the  prophecy  and  the 
greatness  theirs  ?  We  want  them  to  be  heroes,  but  we 
cannot  allow  them  to  be  heroes  of  faith.  This  indeed 
is  a  great  day  for  heroes,  and  our  literature  is  at  work, 
as  in  a  trade,  upon  the  manufacture.  But  it  will  some 
time  be  discovered  that,  in  actual  life,  there  are  two 
kinds  of  heroes — heroes  for  the  visible,  and  heroes  for 
the  invisible;  they  that  see  their  mark  hung  out  as  a 
flag  to  be  taken  on  some  turret  or  battlement,  and  they 
that  see  it  nowhere,  save  in  the  grand  ideal  of  the  in- 
ward life ;  extempore  heroes  fighting  out  a  victory  defi- 
nitely seen  in  something  near  at  hand,  and  the  life- 
long, century-long  heroes  that  are  instigated  by  no 
ephemeral  crown  or  more  ephemeral  passion,  but  have 
sounded  the  deep  base-work  of  God's  principle,  and 
have  dared  calmly  to  rest  their  all  upon  it,  come  the 
issue  where  it  may,  or  when  it  may,  or  in  what  form 
God  will  give  it.  The  former  class  are  only  symbols, 
I  conceive,  in  the  visible  life  of  that  more  heroic  and 
truly  divine  greatness  in  the  other,  which  is  never  of- 
fered to  the  eyes  in  forms  of  palpable  achievement. 
These  latter  are  God's  heroes — heroes  all  of  faith;  the 
other  belong  to  us,  flaming  as  dilettanti  figures  of  art 
in  romances;  protruding  as  bipedal  gods  in  the  windy 
swell  of  pantheistic  literature ;  or  it  may  be,  striding  in 
real  life  and  action  over  fields  of  battle  and  pages  of 
bloody  renown.  If  our  New  England  fathers  do  not 
figure  as  conspicuously  in  this  latter  class  of  heroes  as 
some  might  desire,  may  they  not  sometimes  be  seen — 
when  the  main  ideal  of  religion  is  fulfilled — to  have 
been  the  more  truly  great  because  of  the  remoteness 
and  the  sacred  grandeur  of  their  aims?  And  if  the 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  89 

political  successes  in  which,  as  Americans,  we  so  prop- 
erly indulge  our  pride,  are  but  scintillations  thrown  off 
in  the  onward  sweep  of  their  historic  aims  and  pur- 
poses, little  honor  can  it  do  them  to  discover  that  these 
scintillations  are  the  primal  orbs  and  central  fires  of 
their  expectation. 

Let  us  offer  them  no  such  injustice.  They  are  not 
to  be  praised  as  a  tribe  of  successful  visionaries,  com- 
ing over  to  this  new  world,  in  prophetic  lunacy,  to  get 
up  a  great  republic  and  renovate  human  society  the 
world  over.  They  propound  no  theories  of  social  or- 
der. They  undertake  not,  in  their  human  will  or  wis- 
dom, to  be  a  better  Providence  to  the  nations;  make 
no  promise  of  the  end  they  will  put  to  all  the  human 
ills,  or  of  melting  off  the  ice  of  the  poles  to  cap  them 
with  a  "boreal  crown"  of  felicity. 

Had  they  come  to  build  a  new  future,  in  this  man- 
ner, by  their  will,  according  to  some  preconceived  the- 
ory of  their  head,  the  first  awful  year  of  their  settle- 
ment would  have  broken  their  confidence,  and  left  them 
crying,  as  home-sick  children,  for  some  way  of  return 
to  their  country.  The 

"craven  scruple 


Of  thinking  too  precisely  of  the  event, — 

A  thought  which,  quartered,  hath  but  one  part  wisdom, 

And  ever  three  parts  coward" — 

would  have  shaken  their  fortitude  with  an  ague  as  fatal 
as  that  which,  in  the  first  dreadful  winter,  assailed  the 
life  of  their  bodies — giving  us,  in  their  history,  one 
other  and  quite  unnecessary  proof,  that  man  is  the 
weakest  and  most  irresolute  of  beings  when  he  hangs 
his  purpose  on  his  expectations.  But  coming  in  simple 
duty,  duty  was  their  power — a  divine  fate  in  them, 


90     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

whose  thrusting  on  to  greatness  and  triumphant  good, 
took  away  all  questions  from  the  feeble  arbitrament  of 
their  will,  and  made  them  even  impassible  to  their  bur- 
dens. And  they  went  on  building  their  unknown  fu- 
ture, the  more  resolutely  because  it  was  unknown.  For, 
though  unknown,  it  was  present  in  its  power — present, 
not  as  in  their  projects  and  wise  theories,  but  as  a 
latent  heat,  concealed  in  their  principles,  and  works, 
and  prayers,  and  secret  love,  to  be  given  out  and  be- 
come palpable  in  the  world's  cooling,  ages  after. 

Nor  is  this  suggestion  of  a  latent  wisdom  or  law 
present  in  their  migration,  any  conceit  of  the  fancy; 
for  as  in  the  growth  of  a  man  or  a  tree,  so  also  in  the 
primal  germ  of  nations  and  social  bodies,  there  is  a 
secret  Form  or  Law  present  in  them,  of  which  their 
after-growth  is  scarcely  more  than  a  fit  actualization  or 
development.  This  secret  germ,  or  presiding  form  of 
the  nascent  order,  has  the  force  also  of  a  creative,  con- 
stitutive instinct  in  the  body,  building  up  that  form  by 
a  wisdom  hid  in  itself;  though  conceived,  in  thought, 
by  no  one  member.  By  this  instinctive  action  lan- 
guages are  struck  out  as  permanent  forms  of  thought, 
in  the  obscurest  and  most  savage  tribes,  squared  by  the 
nicest  principles  of  symmetry  and  grammatic  order, 
having  hid  in  their  single  words  whole  chapters  of 
wisdom  that,  some  thousands  of  years  after,  will  be 
opened  by  a  right  explication,  to  the  astonished  gaze 
of  the  philosophic  student.  By  the  same  instinctive 
germinal  force,  unconsciously  present  in  a  people,  the 
future  institutions  and  forms  of  liberty  will  be  con- 
structed; just  as  the  comb  of  the  hive  is  built  by  the 
instinctive  geometry  of  the  hive,  though  not  by  the 
geometric  science  of  any  one  or  more  single  bees  in  it. 
And  somewhat  in  this  manner  it  was  that  our  institu- 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  91 

tions  were  present  in  the  fathers  and  founders  of  our 
history.  They  had  in  their  religious  faith  a  high  con- 
structive instinct,  raising  them  above  their  age  and 
above  themselves;  creating  in  them  fountains  of  wis- 
dom deeper  than  they  consciously  knew,  and  preparing 
in  them  powers  of  benefaction  that  were  to  be  discov- 
ered only  by  degrees  and  slowly  to  the  coming  ages. 
If  you  will  show  them  forth  as  social  projectors  or 
architects  of  a  new  democracy,  they  stubbornly  refuse 
to  say  or  do  any  thing  in  that  fashion.  They  are 
found  protesting  rather  against  your  panegyric  itself. 
Or  if  they  have  come  to  your  acquaintance  overlarded 
in  this  manner,  so  that  you  really  regard  them  as  the 
successful  and  deliberate  revolutionizers  of  the  modern 
age,  you  will  need  to  wash  off  these  coarse  pigments 
and  daubs  of  eulogy,  as  with  nitre  and  much  soap,  and 
set  them  before  you  shining  in  the  consecrating  oil  of 
faith,  before  you  can  truly  conceive  them  as  the  fathers 
of  American  history.  Their  greatness  is  the  uncon- 
scious greatness  of  their  simple  fidelity  to  God — the 
divine  instinct  of  good  and  of  wisdom  by  which  God, 
as  a  reward  upon  duty,  made  them  authors  and  found- 
ers of  a  social  state  under  forms  appointed  by  Himself. 

It  has  been  already  assumed  in  this  general  outline  of 
my  subject,  that  the  practical  aim  or  ideal  of  our  fa- 
thers, in  their  migration  to  the  new  world,  was  religion. 
This  was  the  star  of  the  East  that  guided  them  hither. 
They  came  as  to  the  second  cradle-place  of  a  renovated 
Messiahship.  They  declare  it  formally  themselves, 
when  they  give,  as  the  principal  reason  of  their  under- 
taking, "the  great  hope  and  inward  seal  they  had  of 
laying  some  good  foundation  for  the  propagating  and 
advancing  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  in  these  remote  parts 
of  the  world." — Young's  Chronicles,  p.  47. 


92     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

It  appears,  however,  that  they  had  a  retrospective 
reference,  in  their  thoughts,  as  well  as  the  prospective 
expectation  here  stated.  Thus,  it  is  affirmed  by  Mr. 
Hildersham,  who  had  full  opportunity  to  know  their 
precise  designs,  that  the  colonists,  as  a  body,  before 
coming  over,  "agreed  in  nothing  further,  than  in  this 
general  principle — that  the  reformation  of  the  Church 
was  to  be  endeavored  according  to  the  word  of  God." — 
Cotton  Mather,  p.  18.  But  precisely  what,  or  how 
much  they  intended  by  this,  will  be  seen  nowhere  else, 
with  so  great  clearness,  as  in  the  ever  memorable  part- 
ing address  which  Robinson  made  to  the  Pilgrims,  at 
their  embarkation.  Here  we  behold  the  real  flame  of 
their  great  idea.  He  said : 

"I  charge  you  before  God  and  his  blessed  angels,  that 
you  follow  me  no  further  than  I  have  followed  Christ. 
And  if  God  shall  reveal  any  thing  to  you,  by  any  other 
instrument  of  his,  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  you  ever 
were  to  receive  any  thing  by  my  ministry;  for  I  am 
confident  that  God  hath  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth 
out  of  His  holy  word.  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail  the 
condition  of  the  Reformed  churches,  who  have  come  to 
a  period  in  religion,  and  will  go  no  further  than  the 
instruments  of  their  reformation.  The  Lutherans  can- 
not be  driven  to  go  beyond  Luther;  for  whatever  part 
of  God's  will  he  hath  further  imparted  by  Calvin,  they 
will  rather  die  than  embrace  it.  And  so  also  the  Cal- 
vinists  stick  where  Calvin  left  them — a  misery  much  to 
be  lamented.  For  though  they  both  were  shining  lights 
in  their  times,  yet  God  hath  not  revealed  his  whole  will 
to  them.  Remember  now  your  church  covenant, 
whereby  you  engage  with  God  and  one  another,  to  re- 
ceive whatever  light  shall  be  made  known  to  you  from 
His  written  word.  For  it  is  not  possible  that  the 
Christian  world  is  so  lately  come  out  of  such  thick  anti- 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  93 

Christian  darkness,  and  that  full  perfection  of  know- 
ledge should  break  forth  at  once." — Young's  Chron- 
icles, p.  396-7. 

A  most  remarkable  passage  of  history,  in  which  this 
truly  great  man  is  seen  asserting  a  position,  at  least 
two  whole  centuries  in  advance  of  his  age.  His  resi- 
dence abroad,  among  so  many  forms  of  opinion  and  of 
order,  has  quickened  in  his  mind  the  germ  of  a  true 
comprehensive  movement.  He  also  perceives  the  im- 
possibility that  the  full  maturity  of  truth  and  order 
should  have  burst  forth  in  a  day,  as  distinctly  as  a  phil- 
osophic historian  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Ref- 
ormation, he  is  sure,  is  no  complete  thing — probably  it 
is  more  incomplete  than  any  one  has  yet  been  able  to 
imagine.  And  then  he  has  the  faith  to  accept  his  own 
conclusion.  Sending  out  the  little  half-flock  of  his 
church,  across  the  wide  ocean,  he  bids  them  go  to  watch 
for  light;  and  there,  in  the  free  wilderness  of  nature, 
unrestrained  by  his  own  teachings,  to  complete,  if  pos- 
sible, the  unknown  measure  of  Holy  Reformation. 

This  was  the  errand  he  gave  them,  and  in  this  we 
have  the  fixed  ideal  of  their  undertaking.  And  they 
meant  by  "reformation,"  all  that  God  should  teach 
them  and  their  children  of  the  coming  ages,  by  the 
light  that  should  break  forth  from  His  holy  word- 
all  that  was  needed  to  prepare  the  purity  and  universal 
spread  of  Christian  truth,  and  open  to  mankind  the 
reign  of  Christ  in  its  full  felicity  and  glory.  They 
fixed  no  limits.  It  might  include  more  than  they  at 
present  thought,  or  could  even  dare  to  think.  Still  they 
had  courage  to  say — "Let  the  Reformation  come  in 
God's  measures,  and  as  He  himself  will  shape  it."  And 
for  this,  they  entered,  with  a  stout  heart,  upon  the 
perils  and  privations  of  their  most  perilous  undertak- 
ing. Doubtless  they  had  the  natural  feelings  of  men, 


94     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

but  they  were  going  to  bear  the  ark  of  the  Almighty, 
and  could  not  painfully  fear.  Robinson  had  said — 
and  he  knew  what  was  in  them — "It  is  not  with  us  as 
with  other  men,  whom  small  things  discourage,  and 
small  discontents  cause  to  wish  themselves  home 
again." — Young's  Chronicles,  p.  61.  Confidence  most 
sublime !  justified  by  a  history  of  patience  equally  sub- 
lime. We  shall  see  before  I  close,  whether  the  errand 
of  religious  reformation,  thus  accepted,  was  an  illusion, 
or  whether  it  contained,  in  fact,  the  spring  of  all  our 
political  successes,  and  of  other  and  still  greater  that 
are  yet  to  come. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  here  and  change  the  scene. 
We  will  leave  the  "pinched  fanatics"  of  Leyden,  as  they 
are  sometimes  called,  weeping  their  farewell  on  Robin- 
son's neck,  and  turn  ourselves  to  England.  Ascending 
out  of  the  dull  and  commonplace  level  of  religion,  we 
will  breathe,  a  moment,  in  the  higher  plane  of  wisdom 
and  renowned  statesmanship.  The  philosopher  and  sage 
of  St.  Albans,  hereafter  to  be  celebrated  as  the  father 
of  modern  science,  sits  at  his  table,  in  the  deep  silence 
of  study,  preparing  a  solemn  gift  of  wisdom  for  his 
countrymen.  His  brow  hangs  heavy  over  his  desk, 
and  the  glow  of  his  majestic  face,  and  the  clear  lustre 
of  his  meditative  eye,  reveal  the  mighty  soul  discours- 
ing with  the  inward  oracle.  The  noble  property-hold- 
ers and  chartered  land-companies  of  the  realm  are  dis- 
coursing, every  where,  of  the  settlement  of  colonies  in 
the  new  world,  and  discussing  the  causes  of  failure  in 
the  settlements  heretofore  attempted — he  has  taken  up 
the  theme,  and  is  writing  his  essay  "Of  Plantations." 
And  the  advice  he  offers  to  their  guidance  is  summarily 
this — Make  a  beginning,  not  with  "the  scum  of  the 
people,"  but  with  a  fair  collection  of  single  men,  who 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  95 

are  good  in  all  the  several  trades  of  industry.  Make 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  spontaneous  products  of  the 
country,  such  as  nuts  and  esculent  roots ;  but  expect  to 
support  the  plantation,  in  great  part,  by  supplies  from 
the  mother  country,  for  the  first  twenty  years,  and  let 
the  supplies  be  dealt  out  carefully  "as  in  a  besieged 
town."  "As  to  government,  let  it  be  in  the  hands  of 
one,  assisted  with  some  counsel,  and  let  them  have  com- 
mission to  exercise  martial  laws  with  some  limitations." 
"When  the  plantation  grows  to  strength,  then  it  is  time 
to  plant  with  women  as  with  men." 

Need  I  stay  to  imagine,  before  an  American  audi- 
ence, what  kind  of  history  must  follow  a  plantation  or- 
dered in  this  manner — a  plantation  without  the  family 
state,  without  the  gentle  strengthening  influence  of 
woman,  governed  by  a  single  head,  under  martial  law ! 

Behold  the  little  Mayflower  rounding,  now,  the 
southern  cape  of  England — filled  with  husbands  and 
wives  and  children,  families  of  righteous  men,  under 
"covenant  with  God  and  each  other"  "to  lay  some  good 
foundation  for  religion:" — engaged  both  to  make  and 
to  keep  their  own  laws,  expecting  to  supply  their  own 
wants  and  bear  their  own  burdens,  assisted  by  none  but 
the  God  in  whom  they  trust.  Here  are  the  hands  of 
industry!  the  germs  of  liberty!  the  dear  pledges  of 
order !  and  the  sacred  beginnings  of  a  home ! 

That  was  the  wisdom  of  St.  Albans — this  of  Leyden. 
Bacon  is  there — Robinson  is  here.  There  was  the  deep 
sagacity  of  human  statesmanship — here  is  the  divine 
oracle  of  duty  and  religion.  O  religion !  religion !  true 
daughter  of  God !  wiser  in  action  than  genius  itself  in 
theory!  How  visible,  in  such  a  contrast,  is  the  truth, 
that  whatever  is  wisest  in  thought  and  most  heroic  in 
impulse,  flows  down  upon  men  from  the  summits  of 
religion — and  is,  in  fact,  a  divine  birth  in  souls!  We 


96     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

can  only  say  of  her  as  the  poet  of  woman  herself — re- 
jected here  by  the  masculine  wisdom  of  theory,  and 
welcomed  by  religion  as  a  needed  support  in  her  stur- 
diest trials  of  duty — 

"All  higher  knowledge,  in  her  presence,  falls 
Degraded.  Wisdom,  in  discourse  with  her, 
Loses,  discountenanced,  and  like  folly  shows." 

We  are  not,  then,  to  conceive,  and  must  not  attempt 
to  show,  that  our  fathers  undertook  the  migration  with 
any  political  objects  in  view;  least  of  all  as  distinctly 
proposing  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  great  republic. 
Their  end  was  religion,  simply  and  only  religion.  Out 
upon  the  lone  ocean,  feeling  their  way  cautiously,  as  it 
were,  through  the  unknown  waves,  exploring,  in  their 
busy  fancies  and  their  prayers,  the  equally  unknown 
future  before  them,  they  as  little  conceived  that  they  had 
in  their  ship  the  germ  of  a  vast  republic  that,  in  two 
centuries,  would  command  the  respect  and  attract  the 
longing  desires  of  the  nations,  as  they  saw  with  their 
eyes  the  lonely  wastes  about  them  whitening  with  the 
sails  and  foaming  under  the  swift  ships  of  that  repub- 
lic, already  become  the  first  commercial  power  of  the 
world.  The  most  sanguine  expectation  of  theirs  I 
have  any  where  discovered,  which,  however,  was  not 
political,  but  religious,  was  ventured  by  Gov.  Bradford, 
viz. — "That  as  one  small  candle  may  light  a  thousand, 
so  the  light  kindled  here  may,  in  some  sort,  shine  even 
to  the  whole  nation !"  This  one  small  candle  lighting 
the  thousands  of  all  England,  is  not  quite  as  bold  a 
figure  of  enthusiasm  now  as  it  was  when  it  was  uttered, 
and  will  probably  be  somewhat  less  extravagant,  a  hun- 
dred years  hence,  than  now.  No !  they  cross  the  sea  in 
God's  name  only,  sent  by  Him,  as  they  believed,  to  be 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  97 

the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness — Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths  straight.  But 
whither  those  straightened  paths  will  lead,  and  in  what 
shape  the  new  kingdom  of  the  Lord  will  come,  they  as 
little  conceive  as  John  the  Baptist  himself. 

Let  us  not  be  surprised,  then,  neither  let  it  be  any 
derogation  from  their  merit,  if  we  find  them  actually 
opposed,  in  thought  or  speculative  view,  to  the  very 
opinions  and  institutions,  now  regarded  as  being  most 
distinctively  American.  In  this  I  partly  rejoice;  for 
some  of  the  distinctions  we  boast,  it  is  their  most  real 
praise,  not  to  have  sought  or  accepted.  Thus  we  boast 
that  we  have  made  solemn  proof  to  the  world  of  the 
great  principle,  that  civil  government  has  its  founda- 
tion in  a  social  compact — that  it  originates  only  in  the 
consent  of  the  governed — that  self-government  is  the 
inalienable  right  of  every  people — that  true  liberty  is 
the  exercise  and  secure  possession  of  this  prerogative — 
that  majorities  of  wills  have  an  inherent  right  to  de- 
termine the  laws — and  that  government  by  divine  right 
is  only  a  solemn  imposture.  I  will  not  deny  that,  in 
some  very  partial  and  qualified  sense,  these  supposed 
doctrines  of  ours  may  be  true.  But  taken  in  the  more 
absolute  sense,  in  which  they  are  boasted  by  many,  they 
compose  a  heap  of  as  empty  and  worthless  chaff  as  ever 
fed  the  conceit  of  any  people  in  the  world. 

What  are  formal  compacts,  what  is  self-government, 
what  are  majorities  of  wills,  taken  as  foundations  of 
civil  order?  What  stronger  bond  in  these,  to  hold  a 
community,  than  in  those  recent  compacts  made  to 
share  the  gold  of  our  western  Ophir — all  dissolved,  as 
by  a  breath  of  air,  the  moment  the  adventurers  touch 
the  shore?  Or,  if  we  speak  of  right,  what  right  is 
there  of  any  kind,  which  is  not  divine  right?  Or, 


98     NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

dropping  all  such  refinements,  what  truth  can  there  be 
in  abstract  principles  of  order,  discovered  by  us,  which 
make  every  other  government  that  has  existed  in  the 
world,  for  six  thousand  years,  an  imposture,  or  a  base- 
less usurpation? 

But  if  it  be  conceived  that  there  are  three  distinct 
orders  of  government,  adapted  to  three  distinct  stages 
of  social  advancement — the  government  of  force,  the 
government  of  prescription,  and  the  government  of 
choice — and  then  that  the  particular  terms  of  order  just 
named  are  most  appropriate  and  happiest  for  us,  taken 
as  modes  or  machinery  of  government,  and  not  as  theo- 
retic principles  and  moral  foundations ;  if  we  say  these 
will  best  accommodate  our  liberties,  and  secure  us  in 
the  high  position  to  which  God  has  raised  us,  it  is  well. 
But  then  we  need  to  add  that  law  is  law,  binding  upon 
souls,  not  as  human  will,  or  the  will  of  just  one  more 
than  half  the  full  grown  men  over  a  certain  age,  but 
a  power  of  God  entering  into  souls  and  reigning  in 
them  as  a  divine  instinct  of  civil  order,  creating  thus  a 
state — perpetual,  beneficent,  the  safeguard  of  the  homes 
and  of  industry,  the  condition  of  a  public  feeling  and  a 
consciously  organic  life.  This  it  is  that  makes  all  gov- 
ernment sacred  and  powerful,  that  it  somehow  stands 
in  the  will  of  God;  nay,  it  is  the  special  dignity  and 
glory  and  freedom  of  our  government,  that  it  rests,  so 
little,  on  the  mere  will  or  force  of  man,  so  entirely  on 
those  principles  of  justice  and  common  beneficence 
which  we  know  are  sacred  to  God.  And  it  is  the  glory 
also  of  our  founders  and  first  fathers  that  they  pre- 
pared us  to  such  a  state.  Had  they  managed  to  weave 
nothing  into  our  character  more  adequate  than  we 
sometimes  discover  in  our  political  dogmas,  we  should 
even  have  wanted  the  institutions  about  which  we  spec- 
ulate so  feebly,  and  should  have  been  as  hopeless  of  any 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  99 

settled  terms  of  order,  as  we  now  are  confident  of  our 
baseless  and  undigested  principles. 

I  cannot  withstand  the  temptation  to  recite,  just 
here,  another  passage  from  Robinson.  I  do  it,  partly 
because  it  so  exactly  meets  the  genius  of  our  institu- 
tions, and  reveals  so  beautifully  the  moral  springs  of 
our  history,  and  partly  because  it  prepares  a  way  so 
aptly  for  other  suggestions  yet  to  be  offered.  He  gives 
the  Pilgrims  on  their  departure,  a  written  letter  of  ad- 
vice to  be  carried  with  them,  in  which  are  contained  the 
following  remarkable  words — words  which  I  could 
even  wish  were  graven  in  tablets  of  stone,  as  the  words 
of  a  father  before  Washington,  and  set  up  over  the 
doors  of  our  Congress,  our  State  Legislatures,  our 
town  halls  and  political  assembly  rooms,  there  to  stand, 
meeting  the  eyes  of  our  people  as  long  as  the  nation 
exists — certain  always  of  this,  that  when  the  spirit  of 
the  words  is  wholly  gone,  the  nation  will  exist  no 
longer. 

"Lastly,  whereas  you  are  to  become  a  body  politic, 
using  civil  government  amongst  yourselves,  and  are 
not  furnished  with  any  persons  of  special  eminency 
above  the  rest  [no  knights  or  noble  orders]  to  be 
chosen  into  office  of  government,  let  your  wisdom  and 
godliness  appear,  not  only  by  choosing  such  persons  as 
do  entirely  love  and  will  diligently  promote  the  com- 
mon good,  but  also  in  yielding  unto  them  all  due  honor 
and  obedience  in  their  lawful  administrations;  not  be- 
holding the  ordinariness  of  their  persons,  but  God's 
ordinance  for  your  good;  nor  being  like  the  foolish 
multitude,  who  more  honor  the  gay  coat  [understand 
the  stars  and  ribbons  of  nobility]  than  either  the  vir- 
tuous mind  of  the  man.  or  the  glorious  ordinance  of 
the  Lord.  But  you  know  better  things,  and  that  the 
image  of  the  Lord's  power  and  authority,  which  the 


ioo  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

magistrate  beareth,  is  honorable  in  how  mean  persons 
soever.  And  this  duty  you  may  the  more  willingly 
and  conscionably  perform,  because  you  are,  at  least  for 
the  present,  to  have  only  them  for  your  ordinary  gov- 
ernors, which  yourselves  shall  make  choice  of  for  that 
work." — Young's  Chronicles,  p.  95. 

But,  while  our  founders  stand  right,  when  viewed  in 
relation  to  what  is  most  really  fundamental  in  our  insti- 
tutions, we  must  not  expect  them  to  concur  in  all 
that  we  now  regard  as  most  properly  and  distinctly 
American. 

They  had  no  schemes  of  democracy  to  execute. 
They  were  not,  in  fact,  or  in  their  own  view,  republi- 
cans in  their  ideas  of  government.  When  Robinson's 
doctrine  of  church  order  was  assailed  as  being  a  scheme 
of  Christian  democracy,  he  repelled  the  imputation  as 
a  slander,  insisting,  instead,  that  it  was  a  plan  of  order 
"plainly  aristocratical." — Punchard,  p.  348.  They 
were  all,  to  a  man,  royalists  and  true  Englishmen — 
pleased  with  the  hope  of  "endeavoring  the  advance- 
ment of  his  Majesty's  dominion." — Cotton  Mather,  p. 
6.  Some  of  them  delighted  in  being  able  to  write 
"Mr."  before  their  names,  and  the  others  would  have 
cast  out  any  man  as  a  leveller  and  disorderly  person, 
who  dared  to  controvert  the  validity  of  that  high  dis- 
tinction. Does  any  one  the  less  certainly  know  that 
their  whole  scheme  of  principle  and  order  was  virtually 
and  essentially  republican,  even  from  the  first? 

They  as  little  thought  of  raising  a  separation  of 
church  and  state  as  of  planting  a  new  democracy. 
They  accepted  in  full  and  by  formal  reference  the  Eng- 
lish doctrine  on  this  subject,  and  Robinson  even  pro- 
fessed his  willingness  to  accept  the  "oath  of  suprem- 
acy," which  acknowledges  the  king  as  the  rightful  head 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  101 

of  the  church.  When  a  new  settlement  or  town  was 
planted,  they  said,  not  that  the  settlers  were  become  a 
body  politic,  but  that  they  were  "inchurched."  And 
when  Davenport  preached  on  the  terms  of  suffrage,  the 
problem  stated  was,  "how  to  order  a  frame  of  civil  gov- 
ernment in  a  plantation  whose  design  is  religion." — 
Bacon,  p.  289. 

And  yet  we  can  look  back  now  and  see  as  distinctly 
as  possible,  that  their  very  doctrine  of  church-mem- 
bership must  necessitate  a  final  separation  of  church  and 
state.  For,  if  none  but  the  true  members  of  Christ 
can  be  included  in  the  church,  and  none  but  such  as 
are  included  can  have  the  right  of  suffrage,  then  it 
must  shortly  appear  that  many  good  neighbors  and 
virtuous  sons  and  brothers  are  reduced  to  the  condition 
of  aliens  in  the  commonwealth.  Accordingly,  we  find 
that  the  settlers  of  the  Hartford  Colony,  who  had  be- 
gun to  see  the  pernicious  consequences  of  the  restricted 
suffrage  in  Massachusetts,  in  the  beautiful  constitution 
they  adopted — the  first  written  constitution  of  a  purely 
representative  republican  government  known  to  human 
history — opened  the  right  of  suffrage  to  all  whom  the 
several  towns  might  elect  as  freemen.  And  thus,  in 
less  than  twenty  years  after  the  settlement  of  Ply- 
mouth, the  separation  of  church  and  state  is  visibly 
begun — a  step  is  taken  which  can  possibly  issue  in  this 
alone,  though  the  result  is  not  completely  and  formally 
reached,  till  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed 
away. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  claim  for  our  fathers  the 
honor  of  a  free  toleration  of  religious  opinions.  This 
it  would  seem  that  they  might  have  learned  from  their 
own  wrongs  and  sufferings.  But  they  were  not  the 
men  to  think  of  finding  their  doctrines  in  any  woes  of 
their  flesh.  They  had,  in  fact,  a  conscience  against 


102  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

toleration,  lest  the  state,  "whose  end  is  religion,"  should 
seem  to  connive  at  false  doctrines  and  schismatic  prac- 
tices. Therefore,  when  Cromwell  was  proposing  toler- 
ation in  England,  the  Synod  of  Massachusetts  even 
protested  against  the  measure  as  licentious.  And  one 
of  their  ministers,  the  eccentric  pastor  of  Ipswich,  was 
stirred  up  to  publish  in  England,  a  most  violent  dia- 
tribe against  it.  He  delighted  in  the  old  maxim  that 
"true  religion  is  ignis  probationis," — a  test  of  fire.  In- 
deed this  narrow-spirited  man  had  lived  in  the  midst 
of  toleration,  upon  the  continent,  and  had  not  discov- 
ered its  Christian  beauty.  "I  lived,"  he  says,  "in  a 
city  where  a  Papist  preached  in  one  church,  a  Lutheran 
in  another,  a  Calvinist  in  a  third ;  a  Lutheran  one  part 
of  the  day,  and  a  Calvinist  the  other,  in  the  same  pul- 
pit The  religion  of  that  place  was  but  motley  and 
meagre,  and  their  affections  leopard-like." — Cobbler  of 
Agawam,  p.  5.  Alas !  for  the  brave  pastor  of  Ipswich, 
how  clear  is  it  now,  that  the  toleration  he  so  much 
dreaded  really  belonged  to  all  but  the  rather  testy  preju- 
dices that  he  took  for  a  part  of  his  religion.  The  old 
ignis  probationis,  too,  whose  smoke  had  so  lately  been 
wafted  over  England  from  Smithfield  and  Tyburn — 
which  however  he  did  not  mean,  I  trust,  to  commend  in 
its  most  literal  and  orthodox  sense — is  gone  out  for 
ever  the  world  over.  And  as  to  the  "leopard-like"  re- 
ligion, just  that  which  compelled  a  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  has  doubtless  compelled  a  suffer- 
ance also  of  this,  even  in  his  own  parochial  Ipswich 
itself.  Or  if  free  opinion  be  a  leopard,  spotting  over 
the  Church,  or  dissolving  it  into  so  many  motley  groups 
of  division,  it  will  ere  long  be  seen  that  this  unruly 
leopard  is  fulfilling  the  prophecy,  forgetting  his  in- 
stincts of  prey  and  schism,  and  lying  down  with  the 
kids  of  love,  in  a  catholic  and  perennial  unity. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  103 

It  need  scarcely  be  added,  that  our  fathers  had  as 
little  thought  of  a  separation  from  the  mother  country 
and  as  little  desire  of  founding  an  independent  com- 
monwealth, as  of  the  other  distinctions  just  named. 
England  was  their  home,  they  loved  the  monarchy. 
They  would  even  have  doubted  their  piety  itself,  had 
they  found  a  single  unloyal  thought  in  their  bosoms. 
And  yet  they  were  compelled  to  be  jealous,  even  from 
the  first,  of  any  too  close  implication  with  the  political 
affairs  of  the  mother  country,  lest  it  should  finally  in- 
volve the  security  of  their  liberties.  They  formally 
declined,  in  this  view,  to  connect  themselves  with  Crom- 
well's Parliament  by  any  application  to  it,  and  also  to 
appear  by  deputies  in  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
Divines. — Bancroft,  vol.  i.  pp.  450-1.  It  may  be  taken 
also  as  a  singular  and  most  ominous  fact,  that  the 
Hartford  Colony  in  arranging  the  new  constitution  just 
alluded  to,  made  no  mention  either  of  king  or  parlia- 
ment. This  constitution  required  an  oath  of  allegiance 
directly  to  itself,  and  even  asserted  a  supreme  power — 
"In  which  General  Court  shall  consist  the  supreme 
power  of  the  Commonwealth." — Trumbull,  i.  p.  532. 
And  this  supreme  power  they,  in  fact,  exercised  for 
ever  after;  subject  to  no  negative,  under  governors  of 
their  own  choice,  creating  their  own  tribunals  and  hold- 
ing them  without  appeal,  and  even  openly  resisting  the 
royal  levies  as  an  infringement  of  their  rights.  Here 
was,  in  fact,  a  little,  independent,  unconscious  republic, 
unfolding  itself  by  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  on  its 
own  basis,  under  its  own  laws ;  so  that  when  the  war  of 
independence  came,  instead  of  being  dissolved  by  the 
state  of  revolution  and  required  to  reorganize  itself,  it 
stood  ready  in  full  form  for  action,  and  was  able,  in 
the  first  twenty-four  hours  after  the  outbreak,  to  set 
twenty  thousand  men  upon  the  march,  fully  appointed 


104  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

with  officers  and  arms.  The  people  had  never  set  up 
for  independence.  They  were  loyal — in  their  way. 
But  they  had  been  sheltered  under  the  very  singular 
privileges  of  their  charter,  as  well  as  by  their  more  re- 
tired position;  and  had  actually  grown  apart,  uncon- 
sciously and  by  force  of  their  own  moral  affinities,  into 
a  free  republic.  The  condition  of  Rhode  Island  was 
similar:  and  the  same  general  process  was  going  on 
also  in  the  other  colonies,  only  under  many  restraints 
from  royal  governors  and  the  qualified  privileges  of 
their  charters. 

Now  there  is  a  class  of  writers  and  critics  in  our 
country,  who  imagine  it  is  quite  clear  that  our  fathers 
cannot  have  been  the  proper  founders  of  our  American 
liberties,  because  it  is  in  proof  that  they  were  so  intoler- 
ant and  so  clearly  unrepublican  often  in  their  avowed 
sentiments.  They  suppose  the  world  to  be  a  kind  of 
professor's  chair,  and  expect  events  to  transpire  logi- 
cally in  it.  They  see  not  that  casual  opinions,  or  con- 
ventional and  traditional  prejudices  are  one  thing,  and 
that  principles  and  morally  dynamic  forces  are  often 
quite  another ;  that  the  former  are  the  connectives  only 
of  history,  the  latter  its  springs  of  life;  and  that  if  the 
former  serve  well  enough,  as  providential  guards  and 
moderating  weights,  overlying  the  deep  geologic  fires 
and  subterranean  heavings  of  the  new  moral  instincts 
below,  these  latter  will  assuredly  burst  up,  at  last,  in 
strong  mountains  of  rock,  to  crest  the  world.  Unable 
to  conceive  such  a  truth,  they  cast  about  them,  accord- 
ingly, to  find  the  paternity  of  our  American  institu- 
tions in  purely  accidental  causes.  We  are  clear  of  aris- 
tocratic orders,  they  say,  because  there  was  no  blood 
of  which  to  make  an  aristocracy;  independent  of  king 
and  parliament,  because  we  grew  into  independence 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  105 

under  the  natural  effects  of  distance  and  the  exercise  of 
a  legislative  power;  republican,  because  our  constitu- 
tions were  cast  in  the  moulds  of  British  law ;  a  wonder 
of  growth  in  riches,  enterprise,  and  population,  because 
of  the  hard  necessities  laid  upon  us,  and  our  simple 
modes  of  life. 

And  the  concurrent  action  of  these  causes  must  not 
be  denied,  we  only  must  not  take  them  as  the  true  ac- 
count of  our  successes.  As  good  accidents  were  en- 
joyed elsewhere  as  here.  There  is  the  little  decayed 
town  of  St.  Augustine,  settled  by  a  Spanish  colony  even 
earlier,  by  some  years,  than  Boston,  which  nevertheless 
we  were  just  now  called  to  rescue,  by  a  military  force, 
from  the  incursions  of  the  savages!  There  are  Mex- 
ico and  the  South  American  states,  colonized  by  Spain, 
even  a  hundred  years  prior  to  the  settlement  of  Ply- 
mouth,— when  Spain  too  was  at  the  height  of  her  glory, 
and  even  far  in  advance  of  England,  as  regards  the 
state  of  wealth  and  civil  order, — fellow-republics  in- 
deed in  name,  but  ignorant  still  of  what  liberty  is, 
thirty  years  after  they  have  gotten  the  right  to  it ;  poor, 
unprogressive,  demoralized  by  superstition,  and  the 
oldest  and  strongest  of  them  all  actually  contending, 
at  this  moment,  with  the  aborigines,  to  save  large 
towns  and  old  and  populous  settlements  from  exter- 
mination! A  glance  in  this  direction  is  enough  to 
show  how  much  must  be  referred  to  the  personal  quali- 
ties and  principles  of  the  founders  of  a  nation,  how 
little  to  the  mere  accidents  of  circumstance  and  con- 
dition. 

Besides,  there  is  yet  another  view  of  this  question,  that 
has  a  far  higher  significance.  We  do  not  understand, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  the  real  greatness  of  our  institutions, 
when  we  look  simply  at  the  forms  under  which  we  hold 


io6  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

our  liberties.  It  consists  not  in  these,  but  in  the  mag- 
nificent Possibilities  that  underlie  these  forms,  as  their 
fundamental  supports  and  conditions.  In  these  we  have 
the  true  paternity  and  spring  of  our  institutions,  and 
these,  beyond  a  question,  are  the  gift  of  our  founders. 
We  see  this,  first  of  all,  in  the  fixed  relation  between 
freedom  and  intelligence,  and  the  remarkable  care  they 
had  of  popular  education.  It  was  not  their  plan  to 
raise  up  a  body  of  republicans.  But  they  believed  in 
mind  as  in  God.  Their  religion  was  the  choice  of 
mind.  The  gospel  they  preached  must  have  minds  to 
hear  it :  and  hence  the  solemn  care  they  had,  even  from 
the  first  day  of  their  settlement,  of  the  education  of 
every  child.  And,  as  God  would  have  it,  the  children 
whom  they  trained  up  for  pillars  in  the  church,  turned 
out  also  to  be  more  than  tools  of  power.  They  grew 
up  into  magistrates,  leaders  of  the  people,  debaters  of 
right  and  of  law,  statesmen,  generals,  and  signers  of 
declarations  for  liberty.  Such  a  mass  of  capacity  had 
never  been  seen  before,  in  so  small  a  body  of  men.  And 
this  is  the  first  condition  of  liberty — the  Condensation 
of  Power.  For  liberty  is  not  the  license  of  an  hour; 
it  is  not  the  butchery  of  a  royal  house,  or  the  passion 
that  rages  behind  a  barricade,  or  the  caps  that  are  swung 
or  the  vivas  shouted  at  the  installing  of  a  liberator. 
But  it  is  the  compact,  impenetrable  matter  of  much 
manhood,  the  compressed  energy  of  .good  sense  and 
public  reason,  having  power  to  see  before  and  after, 
and  measure  action  by  counsel — this  it  is  that  walls 
about  the  strength  and  liberty  of  a  people.  To  be  free 
is  not  to  fly  abroad,  as  the  owls  of  the  night,  when  they 
take  the  freedom  of  the  air,  but  it  is  to  settle  and  build 
and  be  strong — a  commonwealth  as  much  better  com- 
pacted in  the  terms  of  reason,  as  it  casts  off  more  of  the 
restraints  of  force. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  107 

Mutual  confidence  also  is  another  and  fundamental 
condition  of  free  institutions.  When  a  revolution 
breaks  out  in  Mexico  or  in  Paris,  and  the  old  magis- 
tracies are  swept  away,  then  immediately  you  shall  see 
that  a  most  painful  question  arises.  Power  must  be 
deposited  somewhere,  with  whom  can  it  safely  be 
trusted?  Is  it  already  in  the  hands  of  a  committee? 
Then  can  this  committee  be  trusted  ?  Is  a  military  com- 
mander set  up  to  maintain  order  for  a  time  with  greater 
efficiency  ?  What  shall  restrain  the  commander  ?  Who- 
ever is  in  power,  the  signs  are  jealously  watched  and 
morbidly  construed.  Well  is  it  if  some  faction  does 
not  spring  up  to  usurp  the  sovereign  power,  by  a  new 
act  of  revolution,  justified  by  the  pretext  of  saving  the 
public  liberties.  Here  you  have  the  whole  history  of 
Mexico  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and,  with  fewer  and 
less  frequent  alternations,  the  history  of  France,  for 
a  longer  period.  There  is  a  fatal  want  of  mutual  con- 
fidence which  nothing  can  supply,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  there  is  nothing  in  which  to  confide.  Power  is 
known  only  as  power,  not  as  the  endowment  of  ob- 
ligation. 

We  are  distracted  by  no  such  infirmity.  We  have 
never  a  thought  of  danger  in  the  immense  powers  we 
confide  to  our  rulers,  simply  because  we  can  trust  one 
another.  We  know  so  well  the  good  sense  and  the  firm 
conscience  of  our  people  as  to  be  sure  that,  if  any  mag- 
istrate lifts  the  flag  of  an  usurper  and  throws  off  the 
terms  of  his  trust,  all  power  will  instantly  drop  out  of 
his  hands,  and  nothing  will  be  necessary  but  to  send  a 
constable  after  him,  even  though  he  be  the  head  of  the 
army  itself! 

Now  this  matter  of  mutual  confidence,  fundamental 
as  you  see  it  to  be  to  all  strength  in  our  institutions,  or 
peace  under  them,  has  a  very  humble,  unpretending 


io8  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

look.  Scarcely  ever  has  it  crept  into  the  notice  of  his- 
tory. It  has  never  been  celebrated,  I  am  sure,  in  any 
epic  poem.  No!  but  it  is  the  silent  exploit  of  a  great 
history.  Let  Mexico  ask  for  it,  and  offer  the  mortgage 
of  her  mines  to  buy  it ;  let  France  question  her  savans, 
or  lay  it  on  the  mitred  priesthood  at  her  altars  to  pro- 
vide the  new  republic  with  this  most  indispensable  gift, 
and  alas!  they  cannot  all  together  guess  where  it  is, 
or  whence  it  shall  come.  It  is  the  silent  growth  of 
centuries,  and  there  is  no  seed  but  the  seed  of  Puritan 
discipline,  out  of  which  it  was  ever  known  to  grow. 

It  is  another  and  most  necessary  condition  of  free 
institutions,  that  the  people  should  be  trained  to  a  spe- 
cial exercise  of  personal  self-government.  For  it  is  the 
distinction  of  a  republic  that  it  governs  less  and  less 
violently,  substituting  a  moral  in  place  of  a  public 
control.  It  is  an  approach  towards  no  government, 
grounded,  as  a  possibility,  in  the  fact  of  a  more  com- 
plete government  established  in  the  personal  habits  of 
the  subjects  themselves.  No  republic  could  stand  for  a 
year,  if  it  were  compelled  to  govern  as  much,  and 
with  as  much  force  as  the  English  people  are  governed. 
Force  must  be  nearly  dispensed  with.  For, 

"What  are  numbers  knit 

By  force  or  custom?    Man  who  man  would  be, 
Must  rule  the  empire  of  himself;  in  it 
Must  be  supreme,  establishing  his  throne 
Of  vanquished  will,  quelling  the  anarchy 
Of  hopes  and  fears,  being  himself  alone." 

Under  this  high  possibility  or  condition,  punish- 
ments are  mitigated,  the  laws  are  fewer  and  more  sim- 
ple, the  police  are  at  their  own  private  employments  and 
come  only  when  they  are  sent  for,  domestic  fortresses 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  109 

and  standing  armies  nowhere  appear  to  annoy  the  sense 
of  liberty.  A  foreigner  passing  through  the  republic 
and  hearing  the  sound  of  government  in  no  beat  of  the 
drum,  seeing  the  government  in  no  parade  of  horse  or 
foot  or  badges  of  police,  concludes  that  the  people  are 
put  upon  their  good  behavior  to-day;  but  when  he  is 
told  that  they  were  so  yesterday,  and  will  be  to-morrow, 
he  imagines  that  a  doom  of  anarchy  is  certainly  close  at 
hand.  The  fears  of  Washington  and  the  most  sober  pa- 
triots of  his  time,  that  our  government  had  not  strength 
enough  to  stand,  were  justified  by  all  human  example, 
and  were  not  to  be  blamed.  And  yet  the  course  of  our 
legislation  has,  to  this  hour,  been  a  course  of  discon- 
tinuance. We  seem  to  be  making  an  experiment,  with 
how  many  laws  it  is  possible  to  dispense.  We  are  anx- 
ious many  times  for  the  result,  and  yet  we  do  not  suf- 
fer. We  have  gone  a  length  in  this  direction  which  to 
any  European  will  appear  incredible.  When  I  ponder, 
not  without  fears  I  confess,  this  sublime  distinction  of 
our  country,  holding  in  contrast  what  has  been  hereto- 
fore, and  forecasting  what  God  may  be  intending  to 
bring  forth  here  in  the  future  ages,  I  am  swallowed  up  in 
admiration  of  that  power  by  which  our  faithful  fathers 
were  able  to  set  our  history  on  a  footing  so  peculiar. 
They  gave  up  their  all  to  religion,  knew  no  wisdom  but 
simply  to  live  for  religion,  and  were  it  not  for  the  inter- 
mixture of  so  many  foreign  elements  which  at  present 
disturb  our  condition,  we  might  almost  imagine  that  in 
some  good  future,  when  the  moral  regimen  of  self-gov- 
ernment is  complete  in  our  people,  the  external  gov- 
ernment of  force  and  constraint  may  be  safely  dis- 
pensed with,  the  civil  state  subside  in  the  fulness  of  the 
spiritual,  and  God  alone  be  left  presiding  over  the 
grand  republic  of  wills  by  the  sufficiency  of  his  own 
divine  Spirit  and  principles. 


i  io  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Closely  allied  with  this  great  possibility  of  self-gov- 
ernment, as  a  ground  of  republican  order,  is  another,  if 
indeed  it  be  another,  which  must  needs  be  prepared  also. 
I  speak  of  the  displacement  of  loyalty,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  law.  Loyalty  is  a  sentiment,  law  a  conviction 
or  principle.  One  is  the  tribute  yielded  to  a  person, 
the  other  is  the  enthronement  of  an  abstraction  simply, 
or  a  formal  statute.  In  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  taken 
as  a  tribute  of  homage  to  high-born  persons,  to  the 
starred  noble,  or  the  reigning  prince  of  a  royal  house, 
there  is  a  certain  beauty  which  naturally  fascinates  the 
mind.  The  sentiment  partakes  of  chivalry.  In  such 
a  distribution  of  the  social  state,  there  is  a  fine  show  of 
distinctions  that  sets  off  a  romance,  or  a  play,  and  even 
gives  to  society  itself  the  courtly  air  of  a  drama.  Gov- 
ernment is  here  seen  in  the  concrete,  set  off  by  dress  and 
title  and  scales  of  precedence,  and  the  loyal  heart  re- 
joices in  the  homage  it  yields  to  the  gods  of  the  eye. 
Such  a  government  is  better  adapted  to  a  people  gener- 
ally rude  and  uneducated,  or  low  in  moral  culture,  be- 
cause it  is  a  government  of  show  and  sentiment,  and 
not  of  reason.  But,  with  all  the  captivating  airs  it  has 
to  the  mere  looker  on,  it  is,  in  fact,  a  government  of 
authorized  caprice,  and  obedience  a  state,  too  often,  of 
disappointed  fealty.  If  it  is  pleasant  to  look  upon  the 
fine  livery  of  a  noble,  it  is  far  less  so  to  be  imprisoned 
as  a  public  malefactor  for  a  slight  breach  of  the  game 
law.  The  splendor  of  nobility  is  too  often  corruption ; 
the  protection,  contempt  and  insult.  Moreover,  it  will 
be  found  that  a  merely  personal  and  sentimental  hom- 
age is  of  a  nature  too  inconstant  or  capricious  ever  to 
be  confidently  trusted.  It  may  possibly  hold  a  dog  to 
his  fidelity,  but  it  never  held  a  race  of  men.  There, 
accordingly,  has  never  been  a  government,  standing  on 
the  basis  of  loyalty,  that  was  not  obliged  to  fortify 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  in 

loyalty  by  a  display  of  steel  and  of  military  squadrons, 
more  conspicuous  than  its  noble  orders. 

Now  the  problem  is,  in  founding  a  republic,  to  pre- 
pare a  social  state  without  artificial  distinctions,  and 
govern  it  by  abstractions  and  formal  constitutions  in 
place  of  persons.  The  "gay  coat"  of  Robinson,  the 
royal  pageants  and  the  starred  nobility  are  withdrawn 
from  the  eye,  and  the  laws  and  constitutions — in  one 
view  nothing  but  invisible  abstractions  or  terms  of 
public  reason — must  be  set  in  that  inward  homage 
which  can  never  be  shaken.  The  problem,  though  it  be 
the  most  difficult  ever  attempted  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind, is  yet,  for  once,  accomplished.  Consider  the  ter- 
rible surging  of  party  and  passion,  displayed  in  one  of 
our  Presidential  elections.  See  a  whole  nation,  vast 
enough  for  an  empire,  roused  to  the  intensest  pitch  of 
strife  and  tearing,  as  it  were  in  the  coming  out  of  a 
demon.  The  old  Guelph  and  Ghibelline  factions  were 
scarcely  more  violent  or  implacable.  But  the  day  of 
election  passes  without  so  much  as  the  report  of  an 
outbreak,  and  the  day  after  the  whole  nation  is  as  quiet 
as  if  there  were  but  one  mind  in  it — all  by  the  power 
of  Invisible  Law!  Nay,  we  had  a  President  at  the 
head  of  our  great  republic  who  had  no  party  in  the 
Congress,  and  few  friends  among  the  people.  During 
the  four  whole  years  he  occupied  the  seat  of  power, 
dispensing  a  patronage  greater  than  that  of  the  Queen 
of  England,  with  not  a  soldier  visible  to  assert  the 
majesty  of  order,  and  yet  without  even  the  symptom  of 
a  disturbance.  Never,  in  all  the  history  of  mankind, 
was  displayed  a  spectacle  of  moral  sublimity  compar- 
able to  these  four  years  of  American  history — sublimity 
the  more  sublime,  because  we  were  wholly  unconscious 
of  it  ourselves,  and  had  not  even  a  thought  that  it  could 
be  otherwise ! 


ii2  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

And  the  fundamental  cause,  if  you  seek  it,  is  that 
law  with  us  is  the  public  right  and  reason.  It  is  mine, 
it  is  yours,  and  being  for  all  as  public  reason,  it  is 
God's.  To  rebel  against  it,  therefore,  is  to  rebel  both 
against  ourselves  and  God.  And  if  you  ask  whence 
came  this  conviction,  how  was  it  so  firmly  established  ? 
By  the  life,  I  answer,  and  the  religion  of  our  fathers. 
Whether  true  or  false  is  not  now  the  question,  but  their 
religion  was  a  religion  only  of  judgments  and  abstrac- 
tions. For  these  they  renounced  comfort,  country, 
property,  and  home.  These  they  preached.  On  these 
they  even  fed  their  children.  Honors  and  pageants  of 
distinction  were  out  of  sight.  They  could  not  be  saved 
in  the  easy  drill  of  forms.  No  mitred  order,  no  priest- 
hood came  between  the  worshipper  and  his  God  to  act 
the  patron  for  him,  and  be  the  conduit  of  heaven's  grace 
to  his  soul.  He  must  enter  with  boldness  into  the 
holiest  himself.  There  was  besides  in  Calvinism,  as  a 
religion,  just  that  which  would  give  abstractions  the 
intensest  power  and  the  most  awful  reality  to  the  mind. 
It  took  its  beginning  at  the  sovereignty  of  God.  It  saw 
all  men  lying  in  a  common  plane  of  equality  below. 
The  only  princes  it  knew  were  God's  elect.  And  this 
kind  of  knighthood  it  was  no  easy  formality  to  gain. 
It  was  to  believe  and  accurately  hold  and  experi- 
mentally know  the  iron  base-work  of  an  abstractive 
theology.  The  mind  was  thrust  into  questions  that 
compelled  action — eternal  decrees,  absolute  election,  ar- 
bitrary grace,  imputed  sin,  imputed  righteousness.  On 
these  head  anvils  of  abstraction  the  blows  of  thought 
must  needs  be  ever  ringing,  and  when  the  points  were 
said  to  be  cordially  received,  it  was  meant  also  that  they 
were  dialectically  bedded  in  the  framework  of  the  man. 

Hence  the  remarkable  power  of  abstractions  in  the 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  113 

American  mind.  The  Germans  can  live  in  them  as 
their  day-dreams,  but  we  can  live  upon  them  and  by 
them  as  our  daily  bread.  Our  enthusiasm  is  most  en- 
thusiastic, our  practical  energy  most  energetic  and  prac- 
tical just  here — in  what  we  do,  or  hope  to  do,  under 
the  application  of  great  principles,  whether  of  science, 
government,  or  religion.  And  thus  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  the  gulf  between  loyalty  and  law  is  effectually 
crossed  over.  The  transition  is  made,  and  we  are 
set  by  it  on  a  new  and,  as  time  will  show,  a  much  higher 
plane  of  history.  In  one  view,  there  is  something  un- 
gracious in  our  American  spirit.  We  are  nearly  as 
ignorant  of  the  loyal  feeling  as  a  tribe  of  wild  animals 
— unrespectful  often  to  worth  and  true  precedence. 
And  yet  we  have  a  feeling  as  truly  national  as  any  peo- 
ple in  the  world.  If  the  traveller  in  England  begins 
to  count  the  pictured  Oaks  and  Lions,  the  royal  or 
princely  names  stuck  upon  all  shows  and  shops  of  trade 
and  chop-houses,  and  even  petty  wares,  down  to  soaps 
and  razors — riding  always  on  "Royal"  roads,  sleeping 
at  "Royal"  inns,  and  washing  in  the  water  of  some 
"Royal"  aqueduct — if  he  is  nauseated,  for  the  time,  by 
what  appears  to  be  the  inexhaustible  servility  of  that 
great  people,  he  is  sure  to  smile  at  his  own  impatience 
when  he  returns,  and  recall  the  sentence  he  had  passed. 
He  takes  up  the  newspapers  at  his  hotel,  and  finds  how 
many  headed  by  cognomens  ingeniously  compounded 
with  "People,"  "Democracy,"  "Republic,"  "Constitu- 
tion," "Independence,"  and  "Nation."  He  runs  his 
eye  down  the  advertising  columns  and  along  the  sign- 
boards of  the  street,  and  it  falls  on  how  many  titles  to 
patriotic  favor,  ranging  in  all  grades,  from  the  "Peo- 
ple's Line"  of  steamboats  and  the  ship  "Constitution," 
down  to  the  "Jefferson  Lunch"  and  the  "New  Demo- 


1 14  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

cratic  Liniment."  In  one  view,  these  demonstrations 
have  a  most  ludicrous  air;  in  another,  they  are  signs 
of  the  deepest  significance — showing  that  we,  as  truly 
as  the  most  loyal  of  nations,  have  our  public  feeling; 
a  feeling  not  the  less  universal  and  decided,  because  its 
objects  are  mostly  impersonal. 

And,  by  force  of  this  public  feeling,  it  is  just  now 
beginning  to  appear  that  the  government  of  this  vast 
and,  as  most  persons  would  say,  loosely  compacted  re- 
public, is  really  the  strongest  government  in  the  world. 
What  can  be  stronger  than  a  government  that  has  no 
enemies,  and  the  subjects  of  which  do  not  desire  and 
would  not  suffer  a  change?  They  have  looked  out 
from  their  fastnesses  and  the  loop-holes  of  fortified 
order  in  Europe,  prophesying  our  speedy  lapse  into  an- 
archy; they  have  said,  how  can  a  people  be  governed 
without  a  personal  embodiment  of  authority  in  princes 
and  noble  orders?  But  now,  when  their  thrones  are 
rocking  on  the  underswell  of  popular  movement,  and 
their  princes  flying  in  fishermen's  disguises  from  the 
splendid  millinery  that  was  to  captivate  the  loyal  eyes 
of  their  loyal  people,  they  begin  to  cast  a  look  across 
the  ocean,  to  the  new  republic,  whose  impalpable  throne 
of  law  is  every  where  acknowledged  by  all  as  a  friendly 
power — and  is  not  this,  they  ask,  the  real  strength  and 
stability  of  order? 

Yes,  and  so  I  trust  in  God  it  shall  prove  itself  to  the 
coming  ages.  When  twenty  years  hence,  and  twenty 
years  after  that,  the  successive  waves  of  liberty  roll 
high  across  the  fields  of  Europe,  and  the  old  prescrip- 
tive orders  and  powers  are  drifted  onward  and  away 
till  not  even  the  wreck  can  be  found,  this  better  throne 
of  law  I  trust  shall  stand,  as  the  guardian  to  us  and  the 
promise  to  mankind  of  the  freedom  and  the  righteous 
peace  they  long  for. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  115 

Do  I  then  affirm  that  our  fathers  foresaw  these  mag- 
nificent results,  now  revealed  in  our  political  history? 
I  have  even  made  it  a  part  of  their  greatness  that  they 
did  not.  They  stood  for  God  and  religion  alone. 
They  asked  for  nothing,  planned  for  nothing,  hoped 
for  nothing,  save  what  should  come  of  their  religion. 
They  believed  in  the  Bible  and  in  God's  decrees,  and 
they  came  over  to  profess  the  one  and  fulfil  the  other. 
They  had  not  so  much  as  thought  of  giving  the  uni- 
verse or  the  world  a  "Revised  Constitution."  They 
did  not  believe  in  predestination  by  man — therefore  had 
nothing  in  common  with  our  modern  prophets  of  "sci- 
ence," who  promise  to  re-organize  society  from  a  point 
without  and  by  a  scheme  imposed,  not  by  any  reme- 
dial forces  of  faith  and  duty,  acting  from  within  and 
through  its  secret  laws.  They  did  not  begin  at  the 
point  zero  in  themselves,  or  in  their  own  human  wis- 
dom, but  at  duty;  and  they  represent,  at  once,  the  in- 
fallible success  and  the  majestic  firmness  of  duty. 
Compared  with  the  class  of  ephemeral  world-renova- 
tors just  named,  they  stand  as  the  firm,  granitic,  hea- 
ven-piercing Needles,  by  the  mer  de  glace  of  human 
unbeliefs  and  the  unwisdoms  of  pretended  science :  and 
while  that  is  cracking  below  in  the  frosts  by  which  it  is 
crystallized,  and  grinding  down  its  bed  of  destiny,  to 
be  melted  in  the  heat  of  practical  life  and  be  seen  no 
more,  they  rise  serenely,  as  ever,  lifting  their  heads 
above  the  storm-clouds  of  the  world,  and  stand — still 
looking  up!  They  will  do  below  only  what  they  seek 
above.  They  will  give  us  only  the  reward  of  their 
lives,  and  what  may  be  distilled  from  their  prayers. 
And  in  these,  they  give  us  all. 

Ah !  the  sour,  impracticable  race,  who,  by  reason  of 
their  sinister  conscience,  could  not  kneel  at  the  sacra- 
ments, and  must  needs  stand  up  before  God  Himself, 


ii6  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

when  kings  and  bishops  kneeled ;  barbarians  of  schism, 
who  revolted  to  be  rid  of  the  Christian  civility  of 
priestly  garments ;  who  could  not  be  in  the  spirit  on  the 
Lord's  day  under  the  excellent  prayers  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  preferred  to  insult  the  king  by  dying,  rather 
than  to  yield  him  an  inch  of  Church  reformation! — so 
they  are  described,  and  I  am  not  about  to  deny  that 
they  made  as  many  sharp  points  in  their  religion  as 
Christian  charity  and  true  reason  required.  When 
God  prepares  a  hammer,  it  will  not  be  made  of  silk.  If 
our  fathers  were  uncomfortable  men,  what  great  char- 
acter ever  lived  that  was  not  an  uncomfortable  man  to 
his  times?  If  they  cast  off  the  decrees  of  Parliament, 
and  took  in  the  decrees  of  God  in  their  place,  was  it  not 
to  be  expected,  both  from  what  they  had  cast  off  and 
from  what  they  had  taken,  that  there  would  be  a  little 
more  of  stiffness  and  punctilious  rigor  in  the  issue  than 
was  requisite?  Or,  if  they  had  found  a  true  Pope  in 
the  Bible,  what  should  follow,  but  a  most  literal  obeis- 
ance, even  to  the  slipper  of  the  book?  As  the  world 
too  of  past  ages  had  received  their  salvation,  with  trem- 
ulous awe,  in  a  little  sprinkling  of  holy  water,  or  a  wafer 
on  the  tongue,  and  they  had  now  learned  to  look  for  sal- 
vation in  what  they  believed,  what  should  they  do  but 
stand  for  their  mere  letters  of  abstraction,  as  exact  and 
scrupulous,  as  if  the  words  of  faith  had  even  as  great 
dignity,  as  ablutions  of  the  finger  or  a  paste  in  the 
mouth?  It  could  not  be  otherwise.  That  was  no  age 
for  easy  compliances  and  flowing  lines  of  opinion. 
Whatever  was  done,  must  have  the  cutting  edge  of 
scruple  and  over-punctual  severity.  Only  let  our  fa- 
thers be  judged  with  that  true  historic  sympathy,  which 
is  the  due  of  all  men,  and  I  ask  no  more.  Then  it  will 
even  be  confessed  that,  by  the  strictness  which  ex- 
ceeded reason,  they  only  proved  that  close  fidelity  and 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  117 

sacred  homage  to  reason,  which  is  itself  but  a  name  for 
true  spiritual  honor  and  greatness.     For 


-"Rightly  to  be  great 


Is  not  to  stir  without  great  argument, 
But  greatly  to  find  quarrel  in  a  straw, 
When  honor's  at  the  stake." 

I  have  spoken  thus  at  length  of  the  successes  of  our 
political  and  social  history,  for  it  is  chiefly  in  these  that 
we  have  our  prominence  before  the  world,  and  seem 
also  to  ourselves  to  have  achieved  results  of  the  great- 
est brilliancy  and  magnitude.  But  my  subject  requires 
me  to  believe,  and  I  think  the  signs  also  indicate  that 
results  are  yet  to  come,  far  transcending  these  in  their 
sublimity  and  their  beneficent  consequences  to  man- 
kind. Indeed,  what  now  we  call  results  of  history, 
seem  to  me  to  be  only  stages  in  the  preparation  of  a 
Great  and  Divine  Future,  that  includes  the  spiritual 
good  and  glory  and  the  comprehensive  unity  of  the  race 
— exactly  that  which  most  truly  fulfils  the  grand  reli- 
gious ideal  of  Robinson  and  the  New  England  fathers. 

Their  word  was  "Reformation" — "the  completion  of 
the  Reformation;"  not  Luther's  nor  Calvin's,  they  ex- 
pressly say,  they  cannot  themselves  image  it.  Hith- 
erto it  is  unconceived  by  men.  God  must  reveal  it  in 
the  light  that  breaks  forth  from  Him.  And  this  He 
will  do,  in  His  own  good  time.  It  is  already  clear  to 
us  that,  in  order  to  any  farther  progress  in  this  direc- 
tion, it  was  necessary  for  a  new  movement  to  begin, 
that  should  loosen  the  joints  of  despotism  and  emanci- 
pate the  mind  of  the  world.  And  in  order  to  this  a 
new  republic  must  be  planted,  and  have  time  to  grow. 
It  must  be  seen  rising  up  in  the  strong  majesty  of  free- 
dom and  youth,  outstripping  the  old  prescriptive  world 
in  enterprise  and  the  race  of  power,  covering  the  ocean 


n8  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

with  its  commerce,  spreading  out  in  populous  swarms 
of  industry — planting,  building,  educating,  framing 
constitutions,  rushing  to  and  fro  in  the  smoke  and 
thunder  of  travel  along  its  mighty  rivers,  across  its  in- 
land seas,  over  its  mountain-tops  from  one  shore  to  the 
other,  strong  in  order  as  in  liberty,  a  savage  continent 
become  the  field  of  a  colossal  republican  empire,  whose 
name  is  a  name  of  respect  and  a  mark  of  desire  to  the 
longing  eyes  of  mankind.  And  then,  as  the  fire  of  new 
ideas  and  hopes  darts  electrically  along  the  nerves  of 
feeling  in  the  millions  of  the  race,  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
new  Christian  movement  also  begins  with  it.  Call  it 
reformation,  or  formation,  or  by  whatever  name,  it  is 
irresistible  because  it  is  intangible.  In  one  view,  it 
is  only  destruction.  The  State  is  loosened  from  the 
Church.  The  Church  crumbles  down  into  fragments. 
Superstition  is  eaten  away  by  the  strong  acid  of  liberty, 
and  spiritual  despotism  flies  affrighted  from  the  broken 
loyalty  of  its  metropolis.  Protestantism  also,  divided 
and  subdivided  by  its  dialectic  quarrels,  falls  into  the 
finest,  driest  powder  of  disintegration.  Be  not  afraid. 
The  new  order  crystallizes  only  as  the  old  is  dissolved ; 
and  no  sooner  is  the  old  unity  of  orders  and  authorities 
effectually  dissolved,  than  the  reconstructive  affinities 
of  a  new  and  better  unity  begin  to  appear  in  the  solu- 
tion. Repugnances  melt  away.  Thought  grows  catho- 
lic. Men  look  for  good  in  each  other,  as  well  as  evil. 
The  crossings  of  opinion,  by  travel  and  books,  and  the 
intermixtures  of  races  and  religions,  issue  in  freer, 
broader  views  of  the  Christian  truth:  and  so  the 
"Church  of  the  Future,"  as  it  has  been  called,  gravi- 
tates inwardly  towards  those  terms  of  brotherhood  in 
which  it  may  coalesce  and  rest.  I  say  not  or  believe, 
that  Christendom  will  be  Puritanized,  or  Protestant- 
ized; but  what  is  better  than  either,  it  will  be  Chris- 


HORACE  BUSHNELL  119 

tianized.  It  will  settle  thus  into  a  unity,  probably  not 
of  form,  but  of  practical  assent  and  love — a  Common- 
wealth of  the  Spirit,  as  much  stronger  in  its  unity  than 
the  old  satrapy  of  priestly  despotism,  as  our  republic  is 
stronger  than  any  other  government  of  the  world. 

And  this,  I  conceive,  is  the  true  issue  of  that  "great 
hope  and  inward  zeal"  which  impelled  our  fathers  in 
the  migration.  Our  political  successes  are  but  means 
to  this  magnificent  end — instruments,  all,  and  powers 
of  religion,  as  we  have  seen  them  to  be  its  natural  ef- 
fects and  fruits.  All  kinds  of  progress,  political  and 
spiritual,  coalesce  and  work  together  in  our  history; 
and  will  do  so  in  all  the  race,  till  finally  it  is  raised  to 
its  true  summit  of  greatness,  felicity,  and  glory,  in  God 
and  religion.  And  when  that  summit  is  reached,  it 
will  be  found  that,  as  Church  and  State  must  be  parted 
in  the  crumbling  and  disintegrating  processes  of  free- 
dom ;  so,  in  freedom  attained,  they  will  coalesce  again, 
not  as  Church  and  State,  but  in  such  kind  of  unity  as 
well  nigh  removes  the  distinction — the  peace  and  love 
and  world-wide  brotherhood,  established  under  moral 
ideas,  and  the  eternal  truths  of  God's  eternal  kingdom. 

Glory  enough,  then,  is  it  for  our  sublime  Fathers,  to 
have  filled  an  office  so  conspicuous  in  the  preparation 
of  results  so  magnificent.  I  am  not  unaware  of  the  de- 
fects in  their  character.  Nay,  I  would  rather  see  and 
confess,  than  to  hide  them ;  for,  since  we  cannot  be  gods 
ourselves,  it  is  better  to  be  descended  of  a  race  of  men 
than  of  gods.  But,  when  I  consider  the  unambitious 
sacrifice  they  made  of  their  comforts  and  their  country, 
how  little  they  were  moved  by  vagrant  theories  and 
projects  of  social  revolution,  how  patient  of  hardships, 
how  faithful  to  their  convictions,  how  little  they  ex- 
pected of  men,  how  confidently  they  trusted  their  un- 


known  future  to  God,  and,  then,  what  honor  God  has 
put  upon  them,  and  what  greater  honor  he  is  prepar- 
ing for  their  name,  before  the  good  and  the  free  of  the 
blessed  ages  of  the  future ;  I  confess  that  I  seem  even  to 
have  offended  in  attempting  to  speak  their  eulogy. 
Silence  and  a  bare  head  are  a  more  fit  tribute  than 
words.  Or,  if  we  will  erect  to  them  a  more  solid  and 
yet  worthier  monument,  there  is  none  so  appropriate  as 
to  learn  from  them,  and  for  ourselves  to  receive,  the 
principle  they  have  so  nobly  proved,  that — THE  WAY 

OF  GREATNESS  IS  THE  WAY  OF  DUTY. 


THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE  UNION 

* 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 
1850 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 
(1782-1852.) 

THE  festival  of  1850  was  celebrated  by  the  dinner  only,  but 
there  Webster  gave,  in  reply  to  the  toast  "The  Constitution 
and  the  Union — their  Chief  Defender,"  what  was  really  an  ora- 
tion and  was  published  by  the  Society  as  had  been  the  more 
formal  addresses.  This  was  reprinted  in  the  annual  report  of 
1885  and  is  also  in  Webster's  collected  works.  No  other  ad- 
dress before  the  Society,  save  that  of  Dr.  Holmes,  five  years 
later,  reflects  so  clearly  the  temper  of  the  times. 

At  the  celebration  of  1851  was  received  from  Mr.  Webster  the 
greeting : 

"We  drink  the  health  of  the  sons  of  New  England.  May  Ply- 
mouth Rock  stand  every  shock  till  time  shall  be  no  more." 

No  banquet  was  held  the  following  year,  a  sign  of  the  deep  feel- 
ing over  the  death  of  the  great  New  Englander  in  October, 
1852. 


RESPONSE 


Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  New  England 
Society  of  New  York. 

YE  sons  of  New  England !  Ye  brethren  of  the  kin- 
dred tie !  I  have  come  hither  to-night,  not  without 
some  inconvenience,  that  I  might  behold  a  congrega- 
tion whose  faces  bear  lineaments  of  a  New  England 
origin,  and  whose  hearts  beat  with  full  New  England 
pulsations.  I  willingly  make  the  sacrifice.  I  am  here 
to  attend  this  meeting  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  of  New 
York,  the  great  offshoot  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  of 
Massachusetts.  And,  Gentlemen,  I  shall  begin  what  I 
have  to  say,  which  is  but  little,  by  tendering  to  you  my 
thanks  for  the  invitation  extended  to  me,  and  by  wish- 
ing you,  one  and  all,  every  kind  of  happiness  and 
prosperity. 

Gentlemen,  this  has  been  a  stormy,  cold,  boisterous, 
and  inclement  day.  The  winds  have  been  harsh,  the 
skies  have  been  severe;  and  if  we  had  been  exposed  to 
their  rigor;  if  we  had  no  shelter  against  this  howling 
and  freezing  tempest;  if  we  were  wan  and  worn  out; 
if  half  of  us  were  sick  and  tired,  and  ready  to  descend 
into  the  grave;  if  we  were  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Ply- 
mouth, houseless,  homeless,  with  nothing  over  our 
heads  but  the  heavens,  and  that  God  who  sits  above 
the  heavens;  if  we  had  distressed  wives  on  our  arms, 

123 


I24  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

and  hungry  and  shivering  children  clinging  to  our 
skirts,  we  should  see  something,  and  feel  something, 
of  that  scene,  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  was  en- 
acted at  Plymouth  on  the  22d  of  December,  1620. 

Thanks  to  Almighty  God,  who,  from  that  distressed 
early  condition  of  our  fathers,  has  raised  us  to  a  height 
of  prosperity  and  of  happiness  which  they  neither  en- 
joyed, nor  could  have  anticipated!  We  have  learned 
much  of  them;  they  could  have  foreseen  little  of  us. 
Would  to  God,  my  friends,  that,  when  we  carry  our 
affections  and  our  recollections  back  to  that  period,  we 
could  arm  ourselves  with  something  of  the  stern  vir- 
tues which  supported  them,  in  that  hour  of  peril,  and 
exposure,  and  suffering!  Would  to  God  that  we  pos- 
sessed that  unconquerable  resolution,  stronger  than 
bars  of  brass  or  iron,  which  strengthened  their  hearts ; 
that  patience,  "sovereign  o'er  transmuted  ill,"  and, 
above  all,  that  faith,  that  religious  faith,  which,  with 
eyes  fast  fixed  upon  heaven,  tramples  all  things  earthly 
beneath  her  triumphant  feet ! 

Gentlemen,  the  scenes  of  this  world  change.  What 
our  ancestors  saw  and  felt,  we  shall  not  see  nor  feel. 
What  they  achieved,  it  is  denied  to  us  even  to  attempt. 
The  severer  duties  of  life,  requiring  the  exercise  of  the 
stern  and  unbending  virtues,  were  theirs.  They  were 
called  upon  for  the  exhibition  of  those  austere  qualities, 
which,  before  they  came  to  the  Western  wilderness, 
had  made  them  what  they  were.  T^hings  have  changed. 
In  the  progress  of  society,  the  fashions  and  the  habits  of 
life,  with  all  its  conditions,  have  changed.  Their  rigid 
sentiments,  and  their  tenets,  apparently  harsh  and  ex- 
clusive, we  are  not  called  on,  in  every  respect,  to  imitate 
or  commend;  or  rather  to  imitate,  for  we  should  com- 
mend them  always,  when  we  consider  the  state  of  so- 
ciety in  which  they  had  been  adopted,  and  in  which 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  125 

they  seemed  necessary.  Our  fathers  had  that  religious 
sentiment,  that  trust  in  Providence,  that  determination 
to  do  right,  and  to  seek,  through  every  degree  of  toil 
and  suffering,  the  honor  of  God,  and  the  preservation 
of  their  liberties,  which  we  shall  do  well  to  cherish,  to 
imitate,  and  to  equal,  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability.  It 
may  be  true,  and  it  is  true,  that  in  the  progress  of  so- 
ciety the  milder  virtues  have  come  to  belong  more  espe- 
cially to  our  day  and  our  condition.  The  Pilgrims  had 
been  great  sufferers  from  intolerance;  it  was  not  un- 
natural that  their  own  faith  and  practice,  as  a  conse- 
quence, should  become  somewhat  intolerant.  This  is 
the  common  infirmity  of  human  nature.  Man  retaliates 
on  man.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  the  greater 
spread  of  the  benignant  principles  of  religion,  of  the 
divine  charity  of  Christianity,  has,  to  some  extent,  im- 
proved the  sentiments  which  prevailed  in  the  world  at 
that  time.  No  doubt  the  "first-comers,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  attached  to  their  own  forms  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  to  their  own  particular  and  strongly  cherished 
religious  opinions.  No  doubt  they  esteemed  those  sen- 
timents, and  the  observances  which  they  practised,  to 
be  absolutely  binding  on  all,  by  the  authority  of  the 
word  of  God.  It  is  true,  I  think,  in  the  general  ad- 
vancement of  human  intelligence,  that  we  find,  what 
they  do  not  seem  to  have  found,  that  a  greater  tolera- 
tion of  religious  opinion,  a  more  friendly  feeling  to- 
wards all  who  profess  reverence  for  God  and  obedience 
to  his  commands,  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  great  and 
fundamental  principles  of  religion ;  I  might  rather  say, 
is  itself  one  of  those  fundamental  principles.  So  we 
see  in  our  day,  I  think,  without  any  departure  from  the 
essential  principles  of  our  fathers,  a  more  enlarged  and 
comprehensive  Christian  philanthropy.  It  seems  to  be 
the  American  destiny,  the  mission  which  has  been  in- 


126  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

trusted  to  us  here  on  this  shore  of  the  Atlantic,  the 
great  conception  and  the  great  duty  to  which  we  are 
born,  to  show  that  all  sects,  and  all  denominations,  pro- 
fessing reverence  for  the  authority  of  the  Author  of  our 
being,  and  belief  in  his  revelations,  may  be  safely  toler- 
ated without  prejudice  either  to  our  religion  or  to  our 
liberties. 

We  are  Protestants,  generally  speaking;  but  you  all 
know  that  there  presides  at  the  head  of  the  supreme 
judicature  of  the  United  States  a  Roman  Catholic ;  and 
no  man,  I  suppose,  through  the  whole  United  States, 
imagines  that  the  judicature  of  the  country  is  less  safe, 
that  the  administration  of  public  justice  is  less  respect- 
able or  less  secure,  because  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States  has  been,  and  is,  a  firm  adherent  of  that 
religion.  And  so  it  is  in  every  department  of  society 
amongst  us.  In  both  houses  of  Congress,  in  all  public 
offices,  and  all  public  affairs,  we  proceed  on  the  idea 
that  a  man's  religious  belief  is  a  matter  above  human 
law;  that  it  is  a  question  to  be  settled  between  him 
and  his  Maker,  because  he  is  responsible  to  none  but 
his  Maker  for  adopting  or  rejecting  revealed  truth. 
And  here  is  the  great  distinction  which  is  sometimes 
overlooked,  and  which  I  am  afraid  is  now  too  often 
overlooked,  in  this  land,  the  glorious  inheritance  of  the 
sons  of  the  Pilgrims.  Men,  for  their  religious  senti- 
ments, are  accountable  to  God,  and  to  God  only.  Reli- 
gion is  both  a  communication  and  a  tie  between  man 
and  his  Maker;  and  to  his  own  master  every  man 
standeth  or  falleth.  But  when  men  come  together  in 
society,  establish  social  relations,  and  form  govern- 
ments for  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  all,  then  it  is 
indispensable  that  this  right  of  private  judgment  should 
in  some  measure  be  relinquished  and  made  subservient 
to  the  judgment  of  the  whole.  Religion  may  exist 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  127 

while  every  man  is  left  responsible  only  to  God.  So- 
ciety, civil  rule,  the  civil  state,  cannot  exist,  while  every 
man  is  responsible  to  nobody  and  to  nothing  but  to  his 
own  opinion.  And  our  New  England  ancestors  un- 
derstood all  this  quite  well.  Gentlemen,  there  is  the 
"Constitution"  which  was  adopted  on  board  the  May- 
flower in  November,  1620,  while  that  bark  of  immortal 
memory  was  riding  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Cape 
Cod.  What  is  it?  Its  authors  honored  God;  they 
professed  to  obey  all  his  commandments,  and  to  live 
ever  and  in  all  things  in  his  obedience.  But  they  say, 
nevertheless,  that  for  the  establishment  of  a  civil  polity, 
and  for  the  greater  security  and  preservation  of  their 
civil  rights  and  liberties,  they  agree  that  the  laws  and 
ordinances,  acts  and  constitutions,  (and  I  am  glad  they 
put  in  the  word  "constitutions,") — they  say  that  these 
laws  and  ordinances,  acts  and  constitutions,  which  may 
be  established  by  those  whom  they  shall  appoint  to 
enact  them,  they,  in  all  due  submission  and  obedience, 
will  support. 

This  constitution  is  not  long.  I  will  read  it.  It  in- 
vokes a  religious  sanction  and  the  authority  of  God  on 
their  civil  obligations ;  for  it  was  no  doctrine  of  theirs 
that  civil  obedience  is  a  mere  matter  of  expediency. 
Here  it  is : — 

"In  the  name  of  God,  Amen:  We,  whose  names  are  under- 
written, the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign  lord,  King 
James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ire- 
land, king,  defender  of  the  Faith,  &c.,  having  undertaken,  for 
the  glory  of  God,  and  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
honor  of  our  king  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony 
in  the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do  by  these  presents  solemnly 
and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  of  another,  cove- 
nant and  combine  ourselves  together  into  a  civil  body  politic,  for 
our  better  ordering  and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the 
ends  aforesaid,  and  by  virtue  hereof  do  enact,  constitute,  and 


128  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

frame  such  just  and  equal  laws  and  ordinances,  acts,  constitu- 
tions, and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most 
meet  and  convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colony;  unto 
which  we  promise  all  due  submission  and  obedience." 

The  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  between 
the  Creator  and  the  individual,  and  submission  and  obe- 
dience to  the  will  of  the  whole,  in  all  that  respects  civil 
polity,  and  the  administration  of  such  affairs  as  con- 
cerned the  colony  about  to  be  established,  they  regarded 
as  entirely  consistent;  and  the  common  sense  of  man- 
kind, lettered  and  unlettered,  everywhere  establishes 
and  confirms  this  sentiment.  Indeed,  all  must  see  that 
it  is  the  very  ligament,  the  very  tie,  which  connects  man 
to  man,  in  the  social  system;  and  these  sentiments  are 
embodied  in  that  constitution.  Discourse  on  this  topic 
might  be  enlarged,  but  I  pass  from  it. 

Gentlemen,  we  are  now  two  hundred  and  thirty  years 
from  that  great  event.  There  is  the  Mayflower.1 
There  is  an  imitation  on  a  small  scale,  but  a  correct 
one,  of  the  Mayflower.  Sons  of  New  England!  there 
was  in  ancient  times  a  ship  that  carried  Jason  to  the 
acquisition  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  There  was  a  flag- 
ship at  the  battle  of  Actium  which  made  Augustus 
Caesar  master  of  the  world.  In  modern  times,  there 
have  been  flag-ships  which  have  carried  Hawke,  and 
Howe,  and  Nelson  of  the  other  continent,  and  Hull, 
and  Decatur,  and  Stewart  of  this,  to  triumph.  What 
are  they  all,  in  the  chance  of  remembrance  among  men, 
to  that  little  bark,  the  Mayflower,  which  reached  these 
shores  on  the  22d  day  of  December,  1620?  Yes,  breth- 
ren of  New  England,  yes !  that  Mayflower  was  a  flower 
destined  to  be  of  perpetual  bloom!  Its  verdure  will 

1  Pointing  to  a  small  figure  of  a  ship,  in  confectionery,  rep- 
resenting the  Mayflower,  that  stood  before  him. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  129 

stand  the  sultry  blasts  of  summer,  and  the  chilling 
winds  of  autumn.  It  will  defy  winter ;  it  will  defy  all 
climate,  and  all  time,  and  will  continue  to  spread  its 
petals  to  the  world,  and  to  exhale  an  ever-living  odor 
and  fragrance,  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time. 

Gentlemen,  brethren  of  New  England !  whom  I  have 
come  some  hundreds  of  miles  to  meet  this  night,  let  me 
present  to  you  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  those 
personages  who  came  hither  on  the  deck  of  the  May- 
flower. Let  me  fancy  that  I  now  see  Elder  William 
Brewster  entering  the  door  at  the  farther  end  of  this 
hall;  a  tall  and  erect  figure,  of  plain  dress,  of  no  ele- 
gance of  manner  beyond  a  respectful  bow,  mild  and 
cheerful,  but  of  no  merriment  that  reaches  beyond  a 
smile.  Let  me  suppose  that  his  image  stood  now  be- 
fore us,  or  that  it  was  looking  in  upon  this  assembly. 

"Are  ye,"  he  would  say,  with  a  voice  of  exultation, 
and  yet  softened  with  melancholy,  "are  ye  our  chil- 
dren? Does  this  scene  of  refinement,  of  elegance,  of 
riches,  of  luxury,  does  all  this  come  from  our  labors? 
Is  this  magnificent  city,  the  like  of  which  we  never  saw 
nor  heard  of  on  either  continent,  is  this  but  an  offshoot 
from  Plymouth  rock? 

'Quis  jam  locus    .... 
Quae  regio  in  tcrris  nostri  non  plena  laboris?' 

Is  this  one  part  of  the  great  reward  for  which  my 
brethren  and  myself  endured  lives  of  toil  and  of  hard- 
ship? We  had  faith  and  hope.  God  granted  us  the 
spirit  to  look  forward,  and  we  did  look  forward.  But 
this  scene  we  never  anticipated.  Our  hopes  were  on 
another  life.  Of  earthly  gratifications  we  tasted  little; 
for  human  honors  we  had  little  expectation.  Our 
bones  lie  on  the  hill  in  Plymouth  church-yard,  obscure, 
unmarked,  secreted,  to  preserve  our  graves  from  the 


130  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

knowledge  of  savage  foes.  No  stone  tells  where  we 
lie.  And  yet,  let  me  say  to  you  who  are  our  descen- 
dants, who  possess  this  glorious  country  and  all  it  con- 
tains, who  enjoy  this  hour  of  prosperity  and  the  thou- 
sand blessings  showered  upon  it  by  the  God  of  your 
fathers,  we  envy  you  not,  we  reproach  you  not.  Be 
rich,  be  prosperous,  be  enlightened.  Live  in  pleasure, 
if  such  be  your  allotment  on  earth;  but  live,  also,  al- 
ways to  God  and  to  duty.  Spread  yourselves  and  your 
children  over  the  continent,  accomplish  the  whole  of 
your  great  destiny,  and  if  it  be  that  through  the  whole 
you  carry  Puritan  hearts  with  you,  if  you  still  cherish 
an  undying  love  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  mean 
to  enjoy  them  yourselves,  and  are  willing  to  shed  your 
heart's  blood  to  transmit  them  to  your  posterity,  then 
will  you  be  worthy  descendants  of  Carver  and  Allerton 
and  Bradford,  and  the  rest  of  those  who  landed  from 
stormy  seas  on  the  rock  of  Plymouth." 

Gentlemen,  that  little  vessel,  on  the  22d  of  December, 
1620,  made  her  safe  landing  on  the  shore  of  Plymouth. 
She  had  been  tossed  on  a  tempestuous  ocean;  she  ap- 
proached the  New  England  coast  under  circumstances 
of  great  distress  and  trouble;  yet,  amidst  all  the  dis- 
asters of  her  voyage,  she  accomplished  her  end,  and  she 
bore  a  hundred  precious  pilgrims  to  the  shore  of  the 
New  World. 

Gentlemen,  let  her  be  considered  this  night  as  an  em- 
blem of  New  England,  the  New  England  which  now  is. 
New  England  is  a  ship,  staunch,  strong,  well  built,  and 
particularly  well  manned.  She  may  be  occasionally 
thrown  into  the  trough  of  the  sea  by  the  violence  of 
winds  and  waves,  and  may  wallow  there  for  a  time; 
but,  depend  upon  it,  she  will  right  herself.  She  will 
ere  long  come  round  to  the  wind,  and  obey  her  helm. 

We  have  hardly  begun,  my  brethren,  to  realize  the 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  131 

vast  importance  to  human  society,  and  to  the  history 
and  happiness  of  the  world,  of  the  voyage  of  that  little 
vessel  which  brought  hither  the  love  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty,  and  the  reverence  of  the  Bible,  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  future  generations  of  men.  We  have 
hardly  begun  to  realize  the  consequences  of  that  voy- 
age. Heretofore  the  extension  of  our  race,  following 
our  New  England  ancestry,  has  crept  along  the  shore. 
But  now  it  has  extended  itself.  It  has  crossed  the  con- 
tinent. It  has  not  only  transcended  the  Alleghanies, 
but  has  capped  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  now  upon 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific;  and  on  this  day,  or,  if  not  on 
this  day,  then  this  day  twelvemonth,  descendants  of 
New  England  will  there  celebrate  the  landing 

(A  VOICE.     "To-day;  they  celebrate  it  to-day.") 

God  bless  them!  Here  's  to  the  health  and  success 
of  the  California  Society  of  Pilgrims  assembled  on  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  And  it  shall  yet  go  hard  if  the 
three  hundred  millions  of  people  in  China,  provided 
they  are  intelligent  enough  to  understand  any  thing, 
shall  not  one  day  hear  and  know  something  of  the  rock 
of  Plymouth  too. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  am  trespassing  too  long  on  your 
time.  I  am  taking  too  much  of  what  belongs  to  others. 
My  voice  is  neither  a  new  voice  nor  is  it  the  voice  of  a 
young  man.  It  has  been  heard  before  in  this  place; 
and  the  most  that  I  have  thought  or  felt  concerning 
New  England  history  and  New  England  principles  has 
been  before,  in  the  course  of  my  life,  said  here  or  else- 
where. 

Your  sentiment,  Mr.  President,  which  called  me  up 
before  this  meeting,  is  of  a  larger  and  more  comprehen- 
sive nature.  It  speaks  of  the  Constitution  under  which 
we  live ;  of  the  Union  which  has  bound  us  together  for 
sixty  years,  and  made  us  the  fellow-citizens  of  those 


132  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

who  settled  at  Yorktown  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  their  descendants,  and  now,  at  last,  of  those 
who  have  come  from  all  corners  of  the  earth  and  assem- 
bled in  California.  I  confess  I  have  had  my  doubts 
whether  the  republican  system  under  which  we  live 
could  be  so  vastly  extended  without  danger  of  dissolu- 
tion. Thus  far,  I  willingly  admit,  my  apprehensions 
have  not  been  realized.  The  distance  is  immense;  the 
intervening  country  is  vast.  But  the  principle  on 
which  our  government  is  established,  the  representative 
system,  seems  to  be  indefinitely  expansive;  and  wher- 
ever it  does  extend,  it  seems  to  create  a  strong  attach- 
ment to  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  that  protect  it. 
I  believe  California  and  New  Mexico  have  had  new 
life  inspired  into  all  their  people.  They  feel  them- 
selves partakers  of  a  new  being,  a  new  creation,  a  new 
existence.  They  are  not  the  men  they  thought  them- 
selves to  be,  now  that  they  find  they  are  members  of 
this  great  government,  and  hailed  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  I  hope,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  as  this  system  of  States  and  representative  gov- 
ernments shall  extend,  that  it  will  be  strengthened.  In 
some  respects,  the  tendency  is  to  strengthen  it.  Local 
agitations  will  disturb  it  less.  If  there  has  been  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  somewhere  south  of  the  Potomac,  and  I 
will  not  define  further  where  it  is, — if  there  has  been 
dissatisfaction,  that  dissatisfaction  has  not  been  felt  in 
California;  it  has  not  been  felt  that  side  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  is  a  localism,  and  I  am  one  of  those 
who  believe  that  our  system  of  government  is  not  to  be 
destroyed  by  localisms,  North  or  South.  No ;  we  have 
our  private  opinions,  State  prejudices,  local  ideas;  but 
over  all,  submerging  all,  drowning  all,  is  that  great  sen- 
timent, that  always,  and  nevertheless,  we  are  all  Ameri- 
cans. It  is  as  Americans  that  we  are  known,  the  whole 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  133 

world  over.  Who  asks  what  State  you  are  from,  in 
Europe,  or  in  Africa,  or  in  Asia  ?  Is  he  an  American  ? 
Does  he  belong  to  the  United  States?  Does  that  flag 
protect  him?  Does  he  rest  under  the  eagle  and  the 
stars  and  stripes?  If  he  does,  all  else  is  subordinate 
and  of  but  little  concern. 

Now  it  is  our  duty,  while  we  live  on  the  earth,  to 
cherish  this  sentiment;  to  make  it  prevail  over  the 
whole  country,  even  if  that  country  should  spread  over 
the  whole  continent.  It  is  our  duty  to  carry  English 
principles,  I  mean,  Sir,  [turning  to  Sir  Henry  Bulwer,] 
Anglo-Saxon  American  principles,  over  the  whole  con- 
tinent; the  great  principles  of  Magna  Charta,  of  the 
English  Revolution,  and  especially  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  of  the  English  language.  Our  chil- 
dren will  hear  Shakspeare  and  Milton  recited  on  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  Nay,  before  that,  American 
ideas,  which  are  essentially  and  originally  English 
ideas,  will  penetrate  the  Mexican,  the  Spanish  mind; 
and  Mexicans  and  Spaniards  will  thank  God  that  they 
have  been  brought  to  know  something  of  civil  liberty, 
of  the  trial  by  jury,  and  of  security  for  personal  rights. 

As  for  the  rest,  let  us  take  courage.  The  day-spring 
from  on  high  has  visited  us ;  the  country  has  been  called 
back  to  conscience  and  to  duty.  There  is  no  longer 
imminent  danger  of  dissolution  in  these  United  States. 
We  shall  live,  and  not  die.  We  shall  live  as  united 
Americans;  and  those  who  have  supposed  they  could 
sever  us,  that  they  could  rend  one  American  heart  from 
another,  and  that  speculation  and  hypothesis,  that  seces- 
sion and  metaphysics,  could  tear  us  asunder,  will  find 
themselves  wofully  mistaken. 

Let  the  mind  of  the  sober  American  people  remain 
sober.  Let  it  not  inflame  itself.  Let  it  do  justice  to 
all.  And  the  truest  course,  and  the  surest  course,  to 


134  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

disappoint  those  who  meditate  disunion,  is  just  to  leave 
them  to  themselves,  and  see  what  they  can  make  of  it. 
No,  Gentlemen;  the  time  for  meditated  secession  is 
past.  Americans,  North  and  South,  will  be  hereafter 
more  and  more  united.  There  is  a  sternness  and  se- 
verity in  the  public  mind  lately  aroused.  I  believe  that, 
North  and  South,  there  has  been,  in  the  last  year,  a 
renovation  of  public  sentiment,  an  animated  revival  of 
the  spirit  of  union,  and,  more  than  all,  of  attachment 
to  the  Constitution,  regarding  it  as  indispensably  neces- 
sary; and  if  we  would  preserve  our  nationality,  it  is 
indispensable  that  this  spirit  of  devotion  should  be  still 
more  largely  increased.  And  who  doubts  it?  If  we 
give  up  that  Constitution,  what  are  we?  You  are  a 
Manhattan  man;  I  am  a  Boston  man.  Another  is  a 
Connecticut,  and  another  a  Rhode  Island  man.  Is  it 
not  a  great  deal  better,  standing  hand  to  hand,  and 
clasping  hands,  that  we  should  remain  as  we  have  been 
for  sixty  years,  citizens  of  the  same  country,  members 
of  the  same  government,  united  all,  united  now,  and 
united  for  ever  ?  That  we  shall  be,  Gentlemen.  There 
have  been  difficulties,  contentions,  controversies,  angry 
controversies ;  but  I  tell  you  that,  in  my  judgment, — 

"those  opposed  eyes, 

Which,  like  the  meteors  of  a  troubled  heaven, 
All  of  one  nature,  of  one  substance  bred, 
Did  lately  meet  in  th'  intestine  shock, 
Shall  now,  in  mutual,  well-beseeming  ranks 
MARCH  ALL  ONE  WAY." 


THE   PAST   AND   THE   FUTURE 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD 
1851 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD 
(1808-1879.) 

MR.  HILLARD,  the  speaker  for  the  anniversary  of  1851,  was  a 
well-known  essayist,  reviewer,  and  orator.  He  was  an  active 
citizen  of  Boston,  president  of  the  city  council,  and  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  Senate.  The  estimation  in  which  he  was 
held  as  a  speaker  is  certified  by  his  delivery  of  the  oration  at 
the  Boston  Memorial  meeting  for  Mr.  Webster.  Mr.  Hillard 
was  connected  at  different  times  with  the  "Christian  Register," 
the  "Christian  Examiner,"  the  "New  England  Magazine,"  and 
the  "North  American  Review."  He  was  the  editor  of  an  edi- 
tion of  Edmund  Spenser's  works,  and  among  his  published 
writings  are  biographies  of  Captain  John  Smith  and  of  George 
Ticknor,  and  the  notable  book  of  travels  "Six  Months  in 
Italy." 


DISCOURSE 


MAN  is  a  being  of  "large  discourse,  looking  before 
and  after."  From  this  power  of  living  in  the  past 
and  the  future,  his  essential  grandeur  and  dignity  are 
derived.  The  life  of  the  individual  is  but  a  momentary 
spark;  but  the  life  of  humanity  is  a  luminous  web,  flow- 
ing from  the  bosom  of  God,  into  which  the  hours  of 
every  day  are  woven.  Through  memory  and  hope,  we 
are  born  to  a  great  inheritance  of  records  and  promises ; 
and  poor  indeed  is  the  life  which  feeds  only  on  the  mea- 
gre harvest  of  the  present.  It  is  a  proud  privilege  to 
be  able  to  break  away  from  this  "bank  and  shoal  of 
time,"  to  seek  what  shall  be  in  what  has  been,  to 
turn  experience  into  prophecy,  and,  with  retrospective 
glance,  discern  in  the  mirror  of  the  Past  the  airy  shapes 
of  the  unborn  Future. 

The  origin  of  our  country  lies  in  the  open  daylight  of 
history.  We  cannot  go  back  to  that  morning  twilight 
of  tradition,  from  which  poetry  draws  so  many  of  its 
themes  and  so  much  of  its  inspiration.  Such  forms  as 
Arthur  and  the  Cid,  in  whom  the  real  and  the  fanciful 
meet  and  blend,  like  the  mountain  and  the  cloud  upon 
the  distant  horizon,  have  no  place  upon  our  soil.  The 
simple  dignity  of  men  like  Carver,  and  Brewster,  and 
Winthrop,  can  borrow  no  attractions  from  the  hues  of 
romance.  If  we  lose  something,  so  far  as  imagination 
is  concerned,  by  the  nearness  and  distinctness  of  the 

137 


138  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

settlement  of  the  country,  we  gain  much  upon  the  side 
of  truth,  in  the  moral  dignity  which  was  stamped  upon 
the  enterprise,  in  the  exalted  motives  which  led  to  it, 
and  in  those  high  qualities  of  mind  and  character  by 
which  its  success  was  confirmed.  If  our  early  history 
does  not  furnish  those  picturesque  contrasts,  those  wild 
struggles,  those  lawless  manners,  and  those  genial 
traits  of  homely  nature,  which,  lying  in  the  idealizing 
light  of  distance,  become  the  sources  from  which  poetry 
draws  its  ever  new  materials,  it  is  a  sufficient  compen- 
sation to  a  manly  spirit,  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  insti- 
tutions of  New  England  were  founded  in  religious 
faith ;  that  their  progress  was  assured  by  the  animating 
principle  of  civil  liberty ;  that  they  were  consecrated  by 
a  deep-seated  respect  for  law,  and  enforced  by  lives  of 
spotless  purity.  Other  nations  can  trace  back  the  be- 
ginnings of  their  social  and  civil  state  to  earlier  periods, 
through  a  longer  succession  of  generations;  but  who 
can  find  them  lying  in  higher  sources  than  religion,  lib- 
erty, and  law? 

This  day  is  the  birthday  of  a  great  people.  It  is 
dedicated  to  the  Past  and  the  Future.  It  is  rescued 
from  the  grasp  of  common  life,  and  set  apart  for  se- 
rener  contemplations  and  finer  visions.  The  impor- 
tunate and  clamorous  present  is  laid  asleep.  Our 
thoughts  are  disengaged  from  the  splendid  results  of 
civilization  and  cultivation  which  lie  about  us.  The 
irresistible  power  with  which  the  vast  interests  and 
vivid  excitements  of  a  great  city  seize  upon  and  sub- 
due the  spirit  of  man,  is,  for  the  moment,  paralyzed. 
Your  crowded  warehouses ;  your  stately  mansions ;  your 
streets,  through  which  such  tides  of  life  rush  and  foam ; 
your  noble  rivers,  shadowed  by  so  many  sails,  and  fur- 
rowed by  so  many  keels,  are  shut  out  from  the  eye  of 
the  mind.  Far  other  scenes  unfold  themselves  to  its 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  139 

gaze.  We  see  a  desolate  coast,  white  with  the  snows, 
and  swept  with  the  storms  of  winter.  We  see  a 
solitary  vessel,  weather-stained  and  tempest-shattered. 
We  see  a  band  of  men,  women  and  children,  shivering 
with  cold,  suffering  from  the  effects  of  a  long  and 
rough  voyage,  and  some  already  touched  with  mortal 
sickness — but  all  animated  with  the  same  expression  of 
fortitude  and  faith,  which  gives  a  nobler  dignity  to  the 
brow  of  manhood,  a  purer  light  to  the  eye  of  woman, 
and  breathes  a  thoughtful  air  over  the  face  of  child- 
hood itself.  Behind  them  is  the  sea,  before  them  is  the 
forest,  and  above  them  is  the  sky.  Danger,  and  soli- 
tude, and  famine,  and  winter,  are  the  grim  shapes  that 
welcome  them  to  their  unknown  home.  There  are  nei- 
ther friendly  faces,  nor  cordial  greetings,  nor  warm 
embraces,  nor  food,  nor  shelter,  in  the  howling  wilder- 
ness before  them.  They  are  alone  with  their  God. 

The  experiences  by  which  these  men  and  women 
have  been  ripened  for  the  work  which  lies  before  them, 
embrace  a  large  segment  of  all  that  circle  of  action  and 
suffering  by  which  humanity  is  trained  and  tempered. 
Few  of  the  sorrows  which  try  the  firmness  of  man,  or 
the  love  of  woman,  have  been  wanting  in  their  lives. 
They  have  felt  the  wrath  of  enemies,  the  coldness  of 
friends,  the  sharpness  of  persecution,  and  the  dreary 
heart-ache  of  exile.  Poverty  and  a  low  estate  have 
hardly  been  accounted  among  their  chief  burdens.  The 
necessities  of  their  position  have  called  forth  whatever 
there  was  in  them  of  fortitude,  circumspection,  vigi- 
lance, and  prudence.  Difficulties  have  obstructed  their 
path,  so  numerous  and  so  great,  that  nothing  but  the 
constant  exercise  of  sagacity  and  self-command  could 
have  overcome  them.  Their  life  has  been  a  long  war- 
fare against  the  oppression  of  power  from  without,  and 
the  promptings  of  what  seemed  weaknfss  from  within. 


140  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

And  as  they  have  had  great  sorrows,  so  they  have  had 
great  satisfactions.  The  pressure  of  persecution  has 
bound  their  hearts  together  by  a  depth  and  fullness  of 
sympathy  such  as  can  never  grow  in  the  air  of  happi- 
ness and  prosperity.  Domestic  love — chaste,  pure  and 
warm — has  soothed  and  sustained  them,  and  the  strong 
man,  when  ready  to  faint,  has  been  upheld  by  the  un- 
conquerable faith  and  undying  truth  which  animate 
and  transfigure  the  feeble  frame  of  woman.  And, 
above  all,  they  have  been  admitted  to  a  closer  walk  with 
God  than  has  been  vouchsafed  to  men  of  higher  place, 
more  endowed  with  the  goods  of  this  world,  more  rich 
in  carnal  gifts  and  eye-attracting  graces.  He  has 
bowed  His  heavens,  and,  passing  by  the  princes  and 
nobles  of  the  earth,  has  spoken  with  them  as  friend 
speaks  with  friend.  With  them  He  has  made  a  cove- 
nant, and  they  are  the  living  ark  to  whose  keeping  His 
law  is  intrusted.  In  the  watches  of  the  night,  in  soli- 
tary wildernesses,  upon  the  lonely  ocean,  have  they 
heard  His  awful  voice.  Rapturous  dreams,  resplen- 
dent visions,  celestial  revelations  have  overshone  their 
souls,  and  so  erected  and  exalted  their  spirits,  that  the 
strong  ones  of  the  earth  have  been  as  dead  men  beneath 
their  feet. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  Plymouth — Englishmen  by 
birth — belonged  to  that  remarkable  body  of  men,  the 
Puritans,  who,  in  the  period  between  the  Reformation 
and  the  Revolution  of  Sixteen  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight,  wrought  such  mighty  works  in  Church  and  State, 
and  had  so  large  a  hand  in  opening  those  channels  in 
which  the  mind  of  England  was  ever  after  to  run.  I 
need  hardly  say  that  the  name  of  Puritan  leads  us  into 
a  wide  field  of  controversy,  involving  vital  and  endur- 
ing principles,  both  political  and  religious,  in  which 
every  reflecting  man,  who  speaks  the  speech  of  Eng- 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  141 

land,  is  led  to  take  one  side  or  the  other,  according  to 
his  temperament  and  turn  of  mind.  But  though  all  the 
issues  in  this  great  contest  are  not  yet,  and  never  will 
be  settled,  yet  upon  many  the  silent  verdict  of  history 
has  been  passed;  and  only  obstinate  prejudice  or  clam- 
orous pertinacity  will  move  for  a  rehearing.  It  is 
enough  for  us  that  the  Puritans,  as  a  body  in  English 
history,  long  assailed  and  defended  with  indiscriminate 
and  partisan  zeal,  have  reached  a  point  of  enlightened 
comprehension  and  candid  judgment.  There  is  a  gen- 
eral consent  among  judicial  minds  as  to  their  energy  in 
action,  and  their  constancy  in  suffering,  as  to  the  depth 
and  fervor  of  their  religious  convictions  and  the  pro- 
digious power  of  speech,  thought,  and  conduct,  inspired 
by  them,  and  especially  as  to  the  inestimable  services 
which  they  rendered  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty.  Upon 
this  last  point  the  testimony  of  Hume,  considering  his 
total  want  of  sympathy  with  the  Puritans  in  politics,  as 
well  as  religion,  may  be  received  as  the  very  best  evi- 
dence that  could  be  put  into  the  case. 

Puritanism  as  an  element  of  struggle  in  the  history 
of  England,  and  Puritanism  as  a  constructive  element 
in  the  formation  and  development  of  the  institutions  of 
New  England,  present  points  both  of  resemblance  and 
diversity.  In  England,  the  Puritans  were  always  in  an 
attitude  of  protest  and  resistance.  They  set  their  faces 
against  civil  and  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  against  the 
power  of  the  Bishops  and  the  encroachments  of  the 
Crown,  against  the  Court  of  High  Commission  and  the 
Star-Chamber,  against  Strafford,  and  against  Laud. 
They  contended  for  liberty  in  things  sacred  and  liberty 
in  things  secular,  for  liberty  in  prophesying  and  liberty 
in  debate,  for  the  liberty  of  the  congregation  and  the 
liberty  of  the  individual.  They  formed  the  party  of 
progress,  and  embodied  the  principles  of  movement 


142  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

and  dissent.  When  a  portion  of  them  were  trans- 
planted to  a  new  world,  it  was  natural  and  probable  to 
suppose  that  the  impulse  of  resistance  communicated 
at  home  would  have  proved  a  propelling  motive  abroad, 
that  right  would  have  been  sought  in  a  point  the  most 
remote  from  wrong,  and  that  their  sense  of  the  abuses 
of  power  would  have  taken  the  form  of  impatience 
under  necessary  restraints.  Reasoning  from  analogy, 
we  should  have  supposed  that  the  soil  of  New  Eng- 
land would  have  been  the  scene  of  the  wildest  experi- 
ments in  government,  and  that  the  land  would  have 
been  like  the  land  of  Israel  in  those  days  when  there 
was  no  king,  and  every  man  did  that  which  was  right 
in  his  own  eyes.  Such  would  have  been  the  case,  had 
our  Puritans  been  the  narrow-minded  fanatics  which, 
through  ignorance  or  malice,  they  have  sometimes  been 
called.  But  the  event  was  far  unlike  that  which  might 
have  been  anticipated;  and  nothing  proves  more  con- 
clusively that  their  experiences  had  not  impaired  the 
balanced  wisdom  of  their  minds,  than  the  fact  that 
these  sufferers  and  exiles  in  the  cause  of  liberty  should 
have  shown,  from  the  moment  they  landed  upon  the 
soil  of  Plymouth,  so  profound  a  respect  for  the  prin- 
ciple of  law,  and  should  have  expressed  that  feeling  so 
decisively  in  their  early  legislation.  Reverence  for  au- 
thority, a  stern  sense  of  order,  the  submission  of  the 
one  to  the  many,  a  horror  of  insubordination,  and  faith 
in  elders  and  magistrates,  were  leading  traits  in  the 
character  of  the  Pilgrims.  Indeed,  they  pushed  the 
principle  of  law  too  far,  and,  in  many  instances,  turned 
against  the  liberty  of  the  individual  that  sharp  edge  of 
legislation,  the  smart  of  which  they  had  so  often  felt  in 
their  own  persons. 

It  is  easy  to  praise  the  Puritan  Fathers  of  New  Eng- 
land; it  is  not  difficult  to  blame  them.     We  have  met 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  143 

here  to  honor,  not  to  praise  them;  for  to  honor  is  not 
always  to  praise,  and  to  praise  is  not  always  to  honor. 
There  are  two  aspects  in  which  every  man  may  be  re- 
garded. In  the  one  case,  we  examine  his  fitness  to 
accomplish  some  end  foreign  to  himself;  in  the  other, 
we  inquire  into  his  growth  and  development  with  ref- 
erence to  a  self-contained  end.  In  the  one  case,  we 
ask,  what  can  he  do  ?  In  the  other,  what  is  he  ?  View- 
ing these  men  with  reference  to  an  ideal  standard  of 
humanity,  we  admit  their  want  of  symmetry  and  pro- 
portion. Some  qualities  we  should  like  to  add,  and 
others  to  take  away.  Their  manners  were  severe,  and 
their  temper  intolerant.  While  sternly  breaking  away 
from  the  seductions  of  the  senses,  they  did  not  always 
escape  the  vices  of  hypocrisy  and  spiritual  pride.  They 
gave  an  undue  importance  to  trifles,  and  exalted  in- 
different observances  to  the  dignity  of  symbols.  Their 
legislation  was  teasing  and  intrusive  in  its  details,  and 
in  its  spirit  darkened  by  a  mistaken  sense  of  the  per- 
petual obligation  of  the  Mosaic  Code.  While  they  shut 
out  from  their  hearts  the  refreshment  that  comes  from 
the  sense  of  beauty,  they  opened  the  door  to  those  fierce 
and  consuming  excitements  which  waste  the  bosoms  in 
which  they  rage.  Their  sympathies  were  neither  cor- 
dial nor  expansive,  and  they  would  not  have  been  a 
comfortable  people  for  any  one,  not  of  their  own  way 
of  thinking,  to  have  dwelt  among.  But  when  we  view 
them  with  reference  to  their  fitness  for  the  task  of  col- 
onizing New  England,  we  find  them  wanting  in  no 
needful  qualities,  but,  on  the  contrary,  abounding  in 
all.  We  then  look  upon  them  as  a  people  raised  up  by 
God  to  do  a  great  work,  and  trained  to  that  high  des- 
tiny by  a  corresponding  discipline.  We  must  admit 
that,  as  instruments  for  accomplishing  the  end  that  was 
set  before  them,  they  were  hardly  less  than  p?rfect.  A 


144  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

religious  faith  less  intense,  an  enthusiasm  less  exalted, 
a  constancy  of  purpose  less  firm,  a  softer  fibre  of  soul, 
a  more  flexible  temper  of  mind,  could  never  have  car- 
ried them  through  the  dangers  and  difficulties  which 
lay  in  the  path  oi  their  enterprise.  For  this,  the  highest 
and  strongest  of  worldly  motives  would  have  been 
found  wanting.  Neither  the  glow  of  patriotism,  nor 
the  love  of  power,  nor  the  sense  of  honor,  nor  the  pas- 
sion for  gain,  could  have  borne  the  fearful  experiences 
of  the  first  five  years  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  These 
will  enable  men  to  dispense  with  luxuries,  to  submit 
to  privations,  and  to  encounter  dangers :  but  when  hun- 
ger is,  day  after  day,  gnawing  at  their  hearts;  when 
Winter  is  beating  upon  them  with  his  icy  flail;  when 
Death  is  so  busy  among  them,  that  the  able-bodied  can 
do  little  more  than  nurse  the  sick  and  bury  the  dead, 
unaided  humanity  will  sink  and  fall  under  the  burden. 
The  support  that  will  enable  men  to  bear  up  under  so 
tremendous  a  pressure,  must  come  from  Heaven  and 
not  from  earth.  Man  must  lay  hold  of  the  hand  of 
God,  and,  aided  by  that,  lift  himself  above  himself,  not 
merely  casting  aside  his  trials,  but  making  them  pedes- 
tals of  exaltation.  And  if  the  elements  were  so  min- 
gled in  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England,  that  they 
had  every  quality  requisite  for  the  work  appointed  unto 
them,  so  that  none  was  wanting  and  none  was  exces- 
sive, do  we  not  see  that  their  previous  discipline  had 
been  such,  as  to  call  forth  all  the  powers  that  were 
essential,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  forbid  the  growth  of 
those  genial  graces  and  winning  accomplishments, 
which  they  are  sometimes  unthinkingly  blamed  for  not 
possessing?  That  they  were  not  fine  gentlemen  and 
elegant  scholars,  is  true;  but  how  could  men  acquire 
courtly  manners  or  delicate  learning,  that  had  never 
breathed  the  air  of  security,  had  been  obliged  to  steal 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  145 

through  life  with  the  cry  of  pursuit  ever  following 
them  upon  the  wind,  had  never  been  bidden  to  good 
men's  feasts,  nor  slept  on  tranquil  pillows?  Poverty, 
persecution  and  exile,  form  those  stern  and  strong  vir- 
tues which  are  the  protection  and  defence  of  communi- 
ties, as  the  storms  of  winter  blow  vigor  into  the  oak 
and  the  pine,  whose  rafters  are  hewn  into  forts,  and 
churches,  and  houses ;  but  the  softer  and  gentler  graces, 
which  embellish  a  prosperous  condition,  bloom  by  the 
side  of  still  waters,  and  in  gardens  sheltered  from  the 
sweeping  blast. 

While  we  acknowledge  and  lament  that  spirit  of  in- 
tolerance which  darkens  the  memory  of  the  Puritan 
Fathers  of  New  England,  we  contend  that  upon  this 
charge  they  should  be  tried  by  the  standard  of  their 
own  age,  and  not  by  that  of  ours.  We  honor  men  who 
are  in  advance  of  their  times,  but  we  have  no  right  to 
blame  those  who  are  not.  Moral  truth  is  progressive 
as  well  as  material.  We  do  not  censure  the  Puritans 
for  having  been  ignorant  of  vaccination,  or  the  expan- 
sive power  of  steam,  and,  practically,  the  world  knew 
as  little  at  that  time  of  the  great  principle  of  toleration. 
So  late  as  1612,  the  fires  of  Smithfield  were  lighted  for 
the  burning  of  a  heretic.  Even  Milton,  in  that  splen- 
did effusion  of  generous  zeal,  so  far  beyond  his  age — 
the  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  unlicensed  printing — 
stops  short  the  glowing  wheels  of  his  eloquence  in  mid 
career,  and  expressly  excludes  Popery  from  the  arms  of 
that  wide-embracing  toleration  which  should  clasp  all 
Protestant  sects.  That  the  Puritans,  who  had  fled  from 
persecution,  should  themselves  have  persecuted,  is  a 
seeming  inconsistency  which  the  laws  of  the  human 
mind  easily  explain.  That  the  men,  who  are  most  pre- 
pared to  surfer  martyrdom,  are  the  most  inclined  to  in- 
flict it,  is  no  paradox  to  him  who  knows  the  nature  of 


146  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

faith  and  the  power  of  zeal.  The  Puritans,  from  the 
beginning,  were  of  this  stern  and  uncompromising 
spirit.  In  their  judgment,  not  only  were  their  own 
views  of  doctrine  and  church  government  true,  but  all 
others  were  false.  They  could  not  live  in  the  pleasant 
land  of  their  birth,  because  they  could  not  consent  to 
tolerate  what  they  deemed  error.  They  had  sacrificed 
everything  that  makes  life  sweet  to  the  natural  man, 
and  fled  into  the  wilderness,  in  order  to  found  a  pure 
church,  such  as  the  pure  eyes  of  God  might  look  upon 
with  favor,  and  they  felt  that  they  had  an  exclusive 
right  to  those  spiritual  privileges  which  they  had 
bought  with  so  great  a  price.  They  had  made  the  waste 
place  a  garden  of  the  Lord,  and  they  could  not  allow 
any  weeds  of  heresy  to  take  root  in  it.  What  equiva- 
lent had  they  to  show  for  all  they  had  renounced,  and 
all  they  had  suffered,  if  they  were  to  encounter  here 
the  false  doctrines  and  idolatrous  practices  which  had 
made  life  intolerable  to  them  at  home  ?  They  held  their 
own  lives  as  nothing  when  weighed  in  the  balance 
against  the  truth ;  and  if,  in  defence  of  the  truth,  they 
inflicted  death,  they  were  equally  prepared  to  meet  it, 
had  such  been  the  will  of  God.  Our  own  age  has  out- 
grown the  axe  and  the  fagot ;  but  is  the  combination  of 
an  earnest  faith  and  a  tolerant  spirit  so  very  common, 
as  to  entitle  us  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  intolerance 
of  the  past  ?  What  we  call  toleration  is  commonly  only 
another  name  for  indifference.  To  have  deep  and  fer- 
vid convictions  in  religion  or  politics,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  respect  the  intellectual  rights  of  those  who  have 
come  to  different  conclusions,  is  still  the  rarest  and 
finest  of  unions. 

That  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  whose  landing  upon  the 
shore  of  Plymouth  we  are  this  day  commemorating, 
were  men  of  an  eminently  religious  spirit,  and  that  the 


GEORGE   S.  HILLARD  147 

motives  which  moved  them  to  that  enterprise  were 
mainly  of  a  religious  origin,  can  be  denied  by  no  can- 
did mind  who  examines  the  evidence  contained  in  their 
own  recorded  statements,  written  with  perfect  sim- 
plicity, and  at  a  time  and  under  circumstances  which 
make  it  impossible  that  they  should  have  had  any  pur- 
pose of  concealment  or  deception.  In  their  view,  the 
ties  which  bound  them  to  God  were  far  more  important 
than  those  which  bound  them  to  any  earthly  object. 
The  fervor  of  their  zeal  was  in  proportion  to  the  depth 
and  sincerity  of  their  faith.  They  were  penetrated 
with  the  most  vivid  sense  of  the  real  existence  of  those 
things  that  are  spiritually  discerned.  The  terrors  and 
promises  of  the  unseen  world  were  ever  darkening  and 
brightening  their  path.  The  smiles  and  frowns  of  God 
were  to  them  as  visible,  as  those  which  a  child  sees 
upon  the  face  of  an  earthly  parent.  Their  daily  life 
revolved  upon  the  poles  of  spiritual  truth. 

A  religious  spirit  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  a  re- 
ligious creed.  It  is  quite  possible  for  a  man  to  assent 
sincerely  to  certain  articles  of  religious  faith,  and  yet 
live  a  worldly  and  irreligious  life.  Belief  is  an  act  of 
the  mind;  but  a  religious  spirit  is  a  state  of  the  moral 
affections.  It  implies  the  constant  guidance  and  re- 
straint of  motives  flowing  from  religious  convictions. 
It  rests  upon  the  ideas  of  the  continued  existence  of  the 
soul,  a  future  state,  and  a  personal  God,  against  whose 
moral  purity  sin  is  an  offence.  Religious  opinions  are 
modified  by  the  progress  which  the  mind  makes  in  sec- 
ular knowledge  and  general  intelligence.  Religious 
truth  is  a  flowing  stream,  and  not  a  stagnant  pool,  and 
God's  revelations  are  not,  like  stars,  best  discerned  in 
the  night  of  ignorance  and  credulity.  The  admirable 
Robinson,  in  his  farewell  sermon,  told  his  people,  in 
words  which  are  as  true  this  day  as  when  they  were 


148  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

spoken,  that  "he  was  very  confident  the  Lord  had  more 
truth  yet  to  break  out  of  his  holy  word."  But  the  spirit 
of  religion  is  ever  essentially  the  same,  just  as  we  see 
the  true  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry,  alike  in  Roger 
Bacon,  groping  in  the  twilight  of  knowledge,  and  in 
Humboldt,  walking  in  its  noon-day  blaze.  That  the 
Pilgrims  were  men  of  a  profoundly  religious  spirit,  is 
a  fact  quite  irrespective  of  the  wisdom  or  expediency 
of  the  particular  acts  and  forms  in  which  that  spirit 
was  expressed.  History  records  no  body  of  men,  whose 
lives  were  more  shaped  and  guided  by  the  relations 
which  exist  between  God  and  the  human  soul.  It  is  no 
figure  of  speech,  but  a  literal  truth,  to  say,  that  the 
glory  of  God  was  the  chief  end  of  their  existence,  and 
that  they  found  perfect  freedom  in  entire  submission  to 
His  law.  The  power  which  this  principle  of  faith  in- 
spired, the  constancy  of  purpose  which  it  gave,  the  firm 
temper  of  soul  which  it  infused,  can  never  be  told  by 
vague  rhetoric  or  impassioned  declamation,  but  can 
only  be  felt  by  those  who  will  read  the  record  of  the 
sufferings  and  privations  of  their  early  years,  made  at 
the  time,  and  on  the  spot,  as  simply  as  if  it  had  been  the 
log-book  of  a  coasting  voyage.  It  tamed  the  rage  of 
hunger,  it  softened  the  rigor  of  cold,  it  broke  the  sting 
of  death.  It  was  a  cordial  to  the  sick,  a  shield  to  the 
timid,  a  hope  to  the  desponding,  a  staff  to  the  feeble. 

While  we  acknowledge  with  gratitude  the  beneficent 
influences  of  that  religious  faith  which  belonged  to  the 
Pilgrims,  as  Puritans,  we  should  not  forget  what  we 
owe  to  those  ideas  of  civil  liberty  which  were  their  in- 
heritance as  Englishmen.  Though,  to  borrow  their  own 
quaint  language,  they  had  become  well  weaned  from 
the  delicate  milk  of  their  mother  country;  yet  they  had 
not  lost  the  vigor  drawn  from  that  strong  meat  of 
Saxon  freedom,  which  she  had  given  them  to  eat. 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  149 

They  landed  upon  the  shore  of  Plymouth,  already  in- 
structed in  the  noble  art  of  building  up  a  state.  Their 
brains  were  not  heated  with  wild  visions  of  ideal  com- 
monwealths, and  they  were  not  compelled  to  read  the 
lines  of  wisdom  upon  the  reverse  side  of  their  ill-woven 
systems.  The  liberty  which  they  found  upon  the  soil 
of  America,  awakened  no  giddy  and  tumultuous  rap- 
tures, because  it  differed  only  in  degree  from  that  which 
they  had  known  at  home.  They  brought  with  them 
the  habit  of  civil  obedience  and  the  instinct  of  politi- 
cal constructiveness.  Persecution  had  stamped  more 
deeply  upon  their  hearts  the  noble  principles  expressed 
in  the  homely  Latin  of  Magna  Charta.  They  had  sat 
upon  juries;  they  had  seen  the  judicial  and  executive 
functions  of  a  state  embodied  in  the  justice  of  the  peace 
and  the  constable.  They  knew  the  meaning  of  those 
proud  words,  the  Commons  of  England.  The  very  op- 
pressions which  they  had  suffered,  had  been  under  the 
forms  of  law.  They  brought  with  them  whatever  was 
vital  and  progressive  in  the  institutions  of  England, 
and  nothing  of  that  which  was  obsolete  and  unsuited 
to  their  new  sphere  of  action  and  duty.  They  left  be- 
hind them  the  burdens  of  feudalism,  the  prerogatives 
of  the  crown,  the  privileges  of  the  nobility,  the  laws  of 
entail,  the  right  of  primogeniture,  and  the  civil  grasp 
of  ecclesiastical  tribunals.  In  the  race  that  was  set 
before  them,  they  started  without  weight.  They  found 
here,  cast  into  their  laps,  and  without  a  struggle,  more 
than  their  brethren  in  England  could  win  after  two 
revolutions. 

The  principles  of  civil  liberty  and  religious  faith 
which  the  Pilgrims,  as  Englishmen  and  as  Puritans, 
brought  with  them,  were  the  germs  of  those  institutions 
which  have  made  the  New  England  States  so  respect- 
able and  so  happy  a  community,  and  had  so  large  an 


ISO  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

influence,  direct  and  indirect,  upon  the  whole  land.  We 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Pilgrims  themselves 
were  at  all  conscious  of  the  splendid  procession  of 
events  that  was  to  start  from  the  Rock  of  Plymouth. 
They  had  no  other  object  than  to  seek  a  safe  asylum  in 
a  remote  land,  where  they  might  worship  God  in  peace, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience;  and 
in  His  hands  they  submissively  left  the  issue  of  their 
work.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  enterprise  itself  wears  a 
more  natural  dignity,  and  that  the  character  of  the  Pil- 
grims becomes  more  simple  and  noble,  if  we  accept 
their  own  statement  of  their  motives  and  expectations 
as  the  plain  truth,  and  do  not  seek  to  garnish  it  with 
modern  inventions.  The  philosophy  of  history,  so 
called,  is  apt  to  slide  into  mere  speculation,  and  a  suc- 
cession of  events,  lying  at  a  distance  of  two  centuries,  is 
sometimes  seen  to  be  linked  together  by  a  law  of  se- 
quence which  exists  only  in  the  observer's  own  mind. 
As  the  stars  are  grouped  into  constellations  from  dim 
resemblances  which  they  suggest,  so  the  bright  points 
in  history  are  made  to  assume  shape  and  consistency, 
in  obedience  to  arbitrary  analogies.  Not  unto  the  Pil- 
grims, admirable  as  they  were,  is  the  honor  due,  but 
unto  God,  who  turned  their  weakness  into  strength, 
and  their  sufferings  into  glory;  who,  from  beginnings 
which,  to  merely  human  judgment,  seemed  to  promise 
nothing  but  disaster  and  defeat,  reared  up  a  mighty 
people,  whose  future  progress  is  beyond  conjecture,  as 
its  past  has  been  beyond  parallel. 

With  the  growth  and  increase  of  the  various  settle- 
ments in  New  England,  the  development  of  the  princi- 
ple of  democracy  becomes  more  and  more  marked ;  but 
we  have  no  right  to  infer  that  the  Pilgrims  themselves, 
or  their  successors  at  Salem  and  Boston,  ever  imagined 
that  it  was  their  destiny  to  become  the  founders  of  great 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  151 

democratic  communities.  The  idea  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  never  presented  itself  to  their  minds ;  and 
if  it  had,  it  would  have  been  received  with  very  little 
favor.  But  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that  from  the  be- 
ginning, the  inevitable  current  of  events  swept  towards 
democratic  institutions,  and  that,  with  the  elements  that 
were  at  work,  none  other  were  possible.  The  great 
doctrine  of  the  Reformation — justification  by  faith 
alone — had  political  as  well  as  religious  consequences. 
It  changed  the  relations,  not  only  between  God  and  the 
soul,  but  between  the  state  and  the  individual.  He  who 
had  attained  to  peace  through  the  pangs  of  a  new  spir- 
itual birth — whom  God,  from  the  beginning,  by  virtue 
of  His  eternal  decrees,  had  chosen  and  redeemed — 
could  not  but  apply  a  searching  spirit  of  inquiry  to  any 
system  of  polity  which  made  him,  while  on  earth,  a 
passive  instrument  or  a  powerless  slave.  The  views  of 
the  Puritan  settlers  upon  church  government  and  dis- 
cipline, led  them  in  the  same  direction.  Congregation- 
alism is  the  principle  of  democracy  applied  to  the 
ecclesiastical  state.  When  a  body  of  men,  gathered  to- 
gether under  the  name  of  a  church,  found  themselves 
qualified  for  the  duties  of  self-government,  it  was  natu- 
ral for  them  to  feel  that  they  were  also  competent  to 
the  task  of  secular  administration.  Thus  the  town,  or 
primitive  political  society,  was  of  twin  birth  with  the 
parish,  or  religious  society.  These  tendencies,  resulting 
from  the  religious  opinions  of  the  early  settlers  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, were  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  they 
were,  with  hardly  an  exception,  drawn  from  the  middle 
classes,  and  met  upon  the  footing  of  a  common  social 
equality. 

All  these  elements,  however,  might  have  been  coun- 
teracted, and  the  foundations  of  an  aristocracy  laid, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  cheapness  and  abundance  of  land 


152  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

— and  land,  too,  of  such  moderate  fertility  that  it  could 
only  be  made  valuable  by  intelligent  labor.  An  aris- 
tocracy can  never  be  formed  except  upon  the  basis  of 
something  like  an  exclusive  right  in  the  land,  by  which 
the  community  becomes  divided  into  two  classes,  land- 
lords and  tenants.  No  such  division  ever  took  place  in 
New  England.  The  early  emigrations  having  been 
undertaken  from  religious  motives,  and  not  from  con- 
siderations of  gain,  there  was  nothing  to  tempt  those 
large  capitalists  who  might  have  stipulated  for  manors 
and  principalities  as  the  condition  of  their  becoming 
partners  in  the  enterprise. 

Thus  the  religious  opinions  of  the  early  settlers,  the 
general  level  of  social  equality  from  which  they  had 
started  at  home,  and  the  abundance  of  land  productive 
enough  to  reward  labor,  but  not  to  invite  capital,  led 
to  the  development  of  institutions  embodying  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-government  more  fully  than  had  been  be- 
fore known.  An  additional  impulse  was  given  to  these 
tendencies  by  the  early  establishment  of  the  system  of 
free  schools,  in  which  provision  was  made  for  the  edu- 
cation of  every  child,  at  the  public  expense.  For  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the  principle  was 
laid  down  and  carried  out  into  operation,  that  the  edu- 
cation of  youth  was  the  duty  of  the  state,  the  expense 
of  which  was  to  be  defrayed  by  a  tax  upon  property,  to 
which  those  who  had  no  children  were  as  much  re- 
quired to  contribute,  as  those  who  had.  Education  was 
justly  regarded  as  the  right  of  all,  and  not  the  privilege 
of  a  few.  In  knowledge  was  recognized  an  element  of 
protection  in  which  all  were  interested,  and  for  which 
all  were  bound  to  pay. 

The  parish  or  religious  society,  the  town,  and  the 
common  school,  have  been  and  are  the  characteristic  in- 
stitutions of  New  England.  By  them  and  through 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  153 

them,  we  are  what  we  are,  and  have  what  we  have. 
They  were  not  exotics,  transplanted  from  another 
clime;  but  they  were  the  spontaneous  growth  of  the 
soil,  and  their  roots  were  twined  round  the  fibres  of  the 
popular  heart.  They  all  wrought  together  for  a  com- 
mon end.  They  fed  the  soul  from  the  tree  of  life,  and 
the  mind  from  the  tree  of  knowledge.  They  formed 
the  instinct  of  social  order,  and  practically  trained  men 
how  to  build  themselves  into  a  state.  A  town-meeting 
does  not  usually  awaken  much  of  reflection  or  emotion 
in  those  who  attend  or  observe  it,  but  it  is  a  most  preg- 
nant and  suggestive  spectacle.  It  is  the  primitive  po- 
litical monad,  entire  within  itself, competent  to  complete 
its  own  appointed  work,  and  at  the  same  time  furnish- 
ing the  deep  and  broad  foundation  on  which  the  more 
comprehensive  functions  of  the  state  repose.  The 
readiness  with  which  men  at  these  meetings  form  them- 
selves into  an  organized  body,  the  facility  with  which 
they  dispatch  business,  the  tact  with  which  they  discern 
the  limits  of  their  powers,  and  the  respect  which  they 
show  to  the  letter  of  the  warrant  which  summons  them, 
are  supposed  by  us  to  be  matters  of  course,  belonging 
to  man  as  man.  But  they  are  the  precious  legacy  be- 
queathed to  us  by  the  toils  and  sufferings  of  our  fa- 
thers. They  are  the  transmitted  instincts  of  regulated 
liberty.  By  them  is  the  citizen  distinguished  from  the 
subject.  In  these  faculties  and  facilities  the  security 
of  our  institutions  resides.  They  keep  us  in  that  state 
of  stable  equilibrium  which  renders  a  revolution  impos- 
sible. The  essential  principle  of  the  civil  polity  of  New 
England  is,  that  there  shall  be  the  maximum  of  ad- 
ministration and  the  minimum  of  government.  Noth- 
ing shall  be  done  by  the  town  which  can  be  done  by 
the  school  district ;  nothing  by  the  county  which  can  be 
done  by  the  town;  nothing  by  the  state  which  can  be 


154  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

done  by  the  county.  Power  is  to  be  kept  as  much  as 
possible  in  the  hands  of  those  most  exposed  to  suffer 
from  its  abuses.  The  conservative  element  is  sought, 
not  in  the  limitation  of  political  rights,  but  in  the  mul- 
tiplication of  political  trusts. 

In  the  history  of  our  country,  the  two  principles  of 
religious  faith  and  civil  liberty,  have  been  in  harmo- 
nious co-operation,  and  not  in  mutual  contrariety.  Re- 
ligion and  its  ministers  have  not  been  the  enemies  of 
progress ;  nor  has  there  been  that  fatal  alliance  between 
liberty  and  irreligion,  so  often  seen  upon  the  Continent 
of  Europe;  nor  have  the  frantic  steps  of  revolution 
been  marshaled  by  torches  lighted  at  the  fire-brands  of 
hell.  The  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  country  are 
the  result  of  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  these 
two  principles.  The  religious  faith  which  was  so  pow- 
erful as  a  sustaining  and  hope-inspiring  presence  to  our 
fathers,  in  their  days  of  sorrow  and  of  small  things,  is 
not  less  important  as  an  elevating  and  restraining  ele- 
ment in  the  maddening  whirl  of  success.  As  has  been 
truly  remarked  by  Coleridge,  "the  two  antagonist  pow- 
ers, or  opposite  interests  of  the  state,  under  which  all 
other  state  interests  are  comprised,  are  those  of  perma- 
nence and  of  progression."  The  highest  problem  of 
political  wisdom  is  to  blend  these  two  powers  in  har- 
monious and  concurring  equilibrium.  In  the  torch- 
races  of  antiquity,  not  only  those  lost  the  prize  who 
failed  to  reach  the  goal  before  their  competitors,  but 
those  also  who  ran  so  heedlessly  that  the  light  which 
they  carried  was  extinguished.  So  it  is  with  nations 
to  whom  the  fire  of  liberty  is  intrusted;  they  must 
guard  the  flame  while  they  run  the  race.  There  is  an 
analogy  between  the  perfect  man  and  the  perfect  state. 
The  perfect  man  is  not  a  man  without  passions,  for  that 
would  be  an  impossible  monster,  but  a  man  in  whom 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  155 

reason  and  conscience  are  guiding  principles,  but  the 
passions  simply  propelling  impulses,  never  supplying 
their  own  end  and  object.  So,  a  perfect  state  is  that  in 
which  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  community, 
speaking  by  the  voice  of  law,  control  the  passions 
working  in  their  appointed  sphere  of  material  develop- 
ment. In  England,  the  only  country  in  Europe  which 
affords  anything  like  a  parallel  to  our  own,  the  element 
of  permanence  is  sought  in  the  landed  interest,  the 
House  of  Lords  being,  in  theory,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  fact,  an  assemblage  of  the  great  landed  es- 
tates of  the  realm.  Our  institutions  give  to  us  the 
largest  measure  of  the  element  of  progression,  because 
each  individual  feels  himself  to  be  a  part  of  the  state, 
and  pours  out  the  rapid  currents  of  his  own  heart,  to 
swell  the  tide  on  which  the  nation  is  borne.  The  spirit 
of  the  living  creature  is  in  the  wheels  of  time.  But 
where  is  the  power  of  permanence  to  come  from?  It 
is  supplied  in  some  measure  by  the  upper  branch  of  our 
legislatures,  which  is  supposed  to  reflect  the  deliberative 
wisdom  of  the  country  more  distinctly  than  the  popular 
body ;  but  as  they  both  rest  upon  the  basis  of  universal 
suffrage,  the  protection  thus  afforded  is  rather  formal 
than  substantial.  The  antagonistic  power  which  we 
need,  cannot  be  found  in  political  combinations  and 
mechanical  contrivances,  since  all  are  set  in  motion  by 
the  same  popular  will,  but  it  must  reside  in  the  popular 
conscience.  The  people  must  be  their  own  law  as  well 
as  their  own  impulse.  A  perception  of  right  and 
wrong,  founded  upon  distinctions  running  deep  into  the 
spiritual  nature  of  man,  must  be  a  controlling  element 
in  politics.  The  elective  franchise  must  be  held  to  be  a 
trust  as  well  as  a  right.  A  godless  democracy,  in  which 
the  passions  of  men  move  to  their  wild  work  through 
the  forms  of  law,  happily  for  mankind,  contains  within 


1 56   NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

itself  the  pledge  of  self-destruction.  Who  can  stand 
before  a  vindictive,  rapacious,  unprincipled  majority? 
Those  principles  and  motives  which  shed  so  pure  a  light 
around  the  narrow  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  which  gave 
such  worth  and  dignity  to  the  memorable  compact  there 
drawn  up  and  signed,  must  wait  upon  our  steps,  as  we 
move  along  the  giddy  and  perilous  edges  of  power  and 
wealth.  That  Rock  of  Ages,  which  was  a  shelter  to 
our  fathers  in  the  piercing  storm  of  trial,  must  spread 
for  us  its  healing  shadow,  in  the  feverish  blaze  of  pros- 
perity. Robinson,  in  his  letter  of  advice  to  his  people, 
tells  them  to  honor  their  rulers,  "not  beholding  in  them 
the  ordinariness  of  their  persons,  but  God's  ordinance 
for  your  good."  Noble,  significant,  enduring  words! 
The  state  is  God's  ordinance  for  man's  good,  and  there 
is  no  higher  law  than  that  which  bids  men  dispose 
themselves  into  "the  unity  and  married  calm  of  states." 
If  the  allegiance  of  the  citizen  be  made  to  rest  upon 
any  lower  basis,  the  state  is  degraded  to  the  level  of  a 
copartnership  or  a  corporation.  What  light  is  to  the 
eye,  what  sound  is  to  the  ear,  law  is  to  the  unper- 
verted  reason.  It  is  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul  of 
man. 

The  unexampled  growth  of  our  country  in  popula- 
tion and  wealth,  and  the  power  which,  for  good  or  for 
evil,  is  put  into  our  hands,  make  it  all-important  that 
our  mental  and  moral  cultivation  should  keep  pace  with 
our  material  civilization.  Many  lights  of  hope  and 
promise  are  shining  upon  the  path  that  lies  before  us, 
and  we  may  look  forward  to  the  future  with  cheerful 
trust.  But  I  cannot  but  think  that  there  has  manifested 
itself,  of  late  years,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  a 
growing  impatience  of  law,  which  certainly  bodes  no 
good.  Law  is  too  often  written  and  spoken  of,  as  if 
it  were  the  arbitrary  decree  of  some  superior  and  irre- 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  157 

sponsible  power,  and  not  the  national  reason  and  con- 
science, prescribing  rules  of  conduct  to  the  national 
will.  The  same  feeling  shows  itself  in  a  morbid  sym- 
pathy with  crime,  summoning  the  generous  impulses 
of  humanity  on  behalf  of  him  who  has  broken  the  law, 
and  setting  its  face  against  justice,  as  a  tyrant  and  an 
oppressor.  It  inflames  and  alarms  the  popular  mind, 
by  denunciations  of  imaginary  plots  and  impossible 
conspiracies  against  their  liberties;  it  encourages  the 
wolves  and  polecats  of  the  press,  in  their  foul  assaults 
upon  the  peace  and  good  name  of  men  and  women ;  it 
directs  the  currents  of  popular  prejudice  and  popular 
passion  against  the  judiciary,  and  would  fain  paralyze 
the  arm  of  justice,  so  that  it  may  neither  smite  the 
guilty  nor  protect  the  innocent.  Restraints  imposed 
by  religion ;  restraints  imposed  by  law,  international  or 
municipal ;  restraints  imposed  by  reason  of  youth,  and 
restraints  imposed  by  reason  of  sex,  are  all  felt  to  be 
evils.  The  largest  amount  of  liberty  is  deemed  to  be, 
under  all  conditions,  the  greatest  good,  forgetting  that 
"everything  that  tends  to  emancipate  us  from  external 
restraint,  without  adding  to  our  own  power  of  self- 
government,  is  mischievous,"  *  and  that  if  liberty  with 
law  be  the  fire  on  the  hearth,  liberty  without  law  is  the 
fire  on  the  floor.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  this  is 
a  general  tendency,  or  that  the  good  sense  of  the  coun- 
try is  not  a  greatly  preponderating  element ;  but  I  must 
appeal  to  the  observation  of  such  of  my  audience  as 
have  reached  or  passed  the  middle  period  of  life,  if  the 
evil  be  not  one  which  has  increased,  is  increasing,  and 
ought  to  be  diminished?  The  heat  of  party  spirit 
warps  the  mirror  of  the  mind,  so  that  it  returns  no  true 
image,  and  the  disturbing  force  of  a  near  irritation  un- 
settles the  habitual  movements  of  the  reason;  but  it  is 

1  Goethe. 


i$8   NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

hard  to  believe  that  a  reflecting  man,  in  his  sober  senses, 
can  entertain  the  notion  that  any  danger  is  to  be  appre- 
hended, in  our  country,  from  the  excess  or  oppression 
of  law.  Our  perils  lie  not  that  way.  It  is  more  likely 
that  the  explosive  force  of  the  principle  of  liberty  will 
shatter  the  vessels  which  contain  it,  than  that  the  ves- 
sels by  their  solidity  and  compression  will  prevent  the 
due  expansion  of  the  principle  itself.  If  there  be  any 
descendant  of  the  Pilgrims  who  gives  his  hand  in  aid 
of  popular  violence,  directed  against  the  law,  whether  it 
be  to  destroy  an  abolition  press,  to  rescue  a  fugitive 
slave  from  the  hands  of  justice,  or  to  commit  an  assault 
upon  the  person  and  property  of  the  representative  of 
a  foreign  power,  he  dishonors  the  blood  which  flows 
in  his  veins.  He  has  read  their  lives  and  their  writ- 
ings in  a  spirit  as  perverse  as  that  in  which  they  read 
the  word  of  God,  when  they  found  in  it  a  warrant  for 
selling  the  wife  and  son  of  Philip  into  slavery. 

The  study  of  history  rebukes  the  pride  of  human  rea- 
son, by  revealing  marked  disproportions  between  par- 
ticular events  and  the  consequences  to  which  they  lead. 
The  first  forty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
fruitful  in  striking  occurrences  and  remarkable  men. 
Charles  II.  was  born  in  1630.  When  he  had  reached 
an  age  to  understand  the  rudiments  of  historical  know- 
ledge, we  may  imagine  his  royal  father  to  have  com- 
missioned some  grave  and  experienced  counselor  of  his 
court  to  instruct  the  future  monarch  of  England  in  the 
great  events  which  had  taken  place  in  Europe,  since 
the  opening  of  the  century.  Upon  what  themes  would 
the  tutor  of  the  young  prince  have  been  likely  to  dis- 
course? He  would  have  dwelt  upon  the  struggle  be- 
tween Spain  and  the  Netherlands ;  and  upon  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  in  Germany,  in  which  the  fortunes  of  a 
daughter  of  the  House  of  Stuart  were  so  involved.  He 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  159 

would  have  quoted  the  spirited  speech  of  the  English 
princess,  that  she  would  rather  eat  dry  bread  as  the 
wife  of  a  king,  than  live  in  luxury  as  the  wife  of  an 
elector — and  would  have  recalled  the  sorrow  that  fell 
upon  the  heart  of  England  when  the  news  came  of  the 
disastrous  battle  of  Prague.  He  would  have  painted 
the  horror  and  dismay  which  ran  through  France  at 
the  assassination  of  Henry  the  Fourth.  He  would 
have  traced  the  glorious  career  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
step  by  step,  and  lingered  long  upon  the  incidents  of 
his  last  fight — how  the  king  went  into  battle  singing  a 
hymn  of  Luther's;  how  the  deep- voiced  chorus  rolled 
along  the  files  of  his  army,  and  with  what  rage  and 
grief  the  Swedes  fell  upon  the  foe  when  they  saw  the 
riderless  horse  of  their  beloved  leader  rush  madly 
through  their  ranks.  He  would  have  attempted  to  con- 
vey to  his  young  pupil  some  notion  of  the  military 
genius  of  Maurice  of  Nassau,  of  the  vast  political  ca- 
pacity of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  of  the  splendor  and 
mystery  that  wrapped  the  romantic  life  of  Wallenstein. 
But  so  seemingly  insignificant  an  occurrence  as  the 
sailing  of  a  few  Puritans  from  Delph  Haven,  in  the 
summer  of  1620,  would  doubtless  have  been  entirely 
overlooked;  or,  if  mentioned  at  all,  the  young  prince 
might  have  been  told,  that  in  that  year  a  congregation 
of  fanatical  Brownists,  who  had  previously  left  Eng- 
land for  Holland,  sailed  for  North  Virginia ;  and  that, 
since  that  time,  many  others  of  the  same  factious  and 
troublesome  sect  had  followed  in  their  path,  and  that 
their  project  of  emigration  had  so  far  succeeded,  as  to 
enable  them  to  send  home  many  cargoes  of  fish  and 
peltry.  But  with  our  eyes,  we  can  see  that  the  humble 
event  was  the  seed  of  far  more  memorable  consequences 
than  all  the  sieges,  battles,  and  treaties  of  that  momen- 
tous period.  The  effects  of  those  fields  of  slaughter 


160  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

hardly  lasted  longer  than  the  smoke  and  dust  of  the 
contending  armies;  but  the  seminal  principles  which 
were  carried  to  America  in  the  Mayflower,  which  grew 
in  the  wholesome  air  of  obscurity  and  neglect,  are  at 
this  moment  vital  forces  in  the  movements  of  the  world, 
the  extent  and  influence  of  which  no  political  foresight 
can  measure.  Ideas  which,  for  the  first  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind,  took  shape  upon  our  soil,  are  the 
springs  of  that  contest  now  going  on  in  Europe  between 
the  Past  and  the  Future,  the  end  of  which  no  man  can 
see.  May  God  inspire  us  and  our  rulers  with  the  wis- 
dom to  preserve  and  transmit,  unimpaired,  those  ad- 
vantages secured  to  us  by  our  remote  position,  and  by 
the  fact  that  we  started  without  the  weary  burdens  and 
perplexing  entanglements  of  the  Past.  May  no  insane 
spirit  of  propagandism  lead  us  to  take  part  in  alien  con- 
tests. May  we  throw  into  the  scale  of  struggling  free- 
dom, not  the  sword  of  physical  force,  but  the  weight  of 
a  noble  example — the  moral  argument  of  a  great  peo- 
ple, invigorated  but  not  intoxicated  by  their  liberty — a 
power  which,  though  unsubstantial,  will  yet,  like  the 
uplifted  hands  of  Moses  upon  Horeb,  avail  more  than 
hosts  of  armed  men. 

We  have  met  here  to-day,  drawn  together  by  the  sen- 
timent of  antiquity ;  but  what  a  span  is  the  life  of  New 
England,  compared  with  the  life  of  the  world  ?  There 
are  persons  now  living,  who  have  conversed  with  a  ven- 
erable man,  who  remembered  to  have  seen  Peregrine 
White,  who  was  born  on  board  the  Mayflower.  By  a 
fact  like  this  we  seem  to  be  brought  near  to  the  event 
which  we  are  commemorating.  But  if  antiquity  be 
measured,  not  by  the  lapse  of  dead  years,  but  by  the 
beatings  of  the  heart  of  national  life,  we  have  a  right  to 
feel  and  to  express  the  sentiment.  The  relation  of 
time  exists  only  in  the  mind.  Thirty  generations  of 


GEORGE  S.  HILLARD  161 

the  hybernating  sleep  of  China,  are  not  longer  than 
two  crowded  centuries  of  energetic  New  England.1 
We  take  pride  in  the  material  prosperity  of  our  coun- 
try, and  we  have  a  right  to  do  so ;  but  on  this  occasion 
let  that  feeling  be  tempered  with  a  softer  and  gentler 
sentiment.  Let  the  remembrance  of  the  past  solemnize 
the  joy  of  the  present  Let  the  thoughts  awakened  by 
the  sufferings  and  sacrifices  of  our  fathers,  take  the 
shape  of  gratitude  for  our  blessings  and  submission  in 
our  trials.  As  you  return  to  your  comfortable  homes, 
and  greet  the  smiling  faces  of  your  children  around 
your  well-spread  boards,  let  your  hearts  be  stirred  with 
a  fresh  sense  of  thankfulness,  when  you  think  of  the 
piercing  winds  that  chilled  the  Pilgrims,  and  of  the 
hunger  that  wasted  their  strength.  You  have  read  of 
the  sufferings  of  their  first  winter — how,  under  the  ex- 
posures and  privations  of  their  new  mode  of  life,  one 
after  another  sickened  and  died,  so  that  when  the  spring 
came,  one-half  of  their  whole  number  had  been  gath- 
ered to  their  last  sleep.  If  separation  from  those  we 
love  be  hard  to  us,  living  in  ease  and  comfort,  walled 
about  with  security,  with  such  fullness  of  life  around 
us,  what  must  it  have  been  to  them,  that  handful  of 
men  and  women,  set  upon  the  edge  of  a  wilderness 
dark  with  unnumbered  apprehensions,  when  the  re- 
moval of  each  face  was  a  sensible  diminution  of  their 
common  stock  of  cheerfulness  and  hope!  Would  that 
the  last  moments  of  those  thus  early  called  could  have 
been  soothed  with  a  foreknowledge  of  the  great  works 
that  were  to  follow  them !  Would  that  the  dim  eyes  of 
the  dying  Carver  had  been  permitted  to  see  the  things 
which  we  now  see!  Would  not  so  magnificent  an 
apocalypse  have  awakened  a  glow  of  rapture  and  exul- 

1  "Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Cathay." 

— Tennyson. 


1 62  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

tation,  not  fading  away  even  before  the  glories  of  the 
Beatific  Vision!  And  if  it  be  permitted  to  those  who 
have  passed  into  the  skies,  to  recall  the  life  of  earth, — 
if  there  be  sensitive  links  of  memory  vibrating  between 
time  and  eternity — may  we  not  feel  an  assurance  that 
our  fathers  are  with  us,  in  spirit,  at  this  hour,  and  that 
throbs  of  mortal  joy  are  mingling  with  the  deep  peace 
of  those  serene  abodes  ? 

Men  of  New  England !  Sons  of  the  Pilgrims !  Let 
not  the  fleet  angel  of  this  hour  leave  us  without  a  bless- 
ing. If  the  memories  of  this  day  have  softened  and 
melted  your  hearts,  stamp  upon  them,  before  they  grow 
cold,  some  image  of  ancestral  worth.  Rich  are  the 
benedictions  which  have  fallen  upon  our  heads  from 
these  covering  heavens.  With  us,  the  God  of  our  fa- 
thers has  no  controversy.  He  does  not  try  our  faith  by 
making  noble  efforts  fruitless,  and  heroic  sacrifices  un- 
availing. He  has  set  no  perplexing  chasms  in  our 
path,  between  the  purpose  and  the  work.  With  us, 
well-doing  is  happiness,  and  duty  is  another  name  for 
prosperity.  Great  is  the  debt  we  owe  to  the  Past ;  great 
is  the  trust  committed  to  us  for  the  Future.  We  can 
pay  that  debt — we  can  discharge  that  trust — only  by 
working  faithfully  in  the  Present.  The  stately  march 
of  our  laws  and  speech,  which  began  at  the  rock  of 
Plymouth,  will  ever  move  in  the  paths  of  honor  and  of 
peace,  so  long  as  it  follows  that  great  guiding  light 
which  led  the  Pilgrims  into  their  land  of  promise. 


ADDRESS 


WILLIAM   ADAMS,  D.D. 
1852 


WILLIAM  ADAMS 
(1807-1880.) 

DR.  ADAMS,  a  native  of  Colchester,  Connecticut,  graduate  of  Yale 
and  of  Andover,  came,  in  1834,  to  New  York  to  the  pastorate 
of  the  Broome  Street  Presbyterian  Church.  Nineteen  years  later 
the  Madison  Avenue  Church  was  formed  for  him,  and  Dr.  Adams 
had  become  one  of  the  noted  members  of  the  then  remarkable 
New  York  clergy.  In  his  early  days  in  the  city  he  was  active 
in  the  organization  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary.  For 
forty- four  years  he  was  one  of  its  directors ;  for  the  last  seven 
years  of  his  life,  its  president  and  the  Professor  of  Sacred 
Rhetoric.  Dr.  Adams  was  an  enthusiastic  member  of  the  New 
School  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  his  abhorrence 
of  sectarianism  and  his  love  of  unity  made  him  foremost  in 
the  work  of  reunion  with  the  Old  School  division.  As  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  reunion,  he  bore  a  great  share  in 
bringing  about  the  agreement  between  the  two  sections,  now  so 
firmly  welded  that  the  causes  of  the  separation  are  well-nigh 
forgotten.  Dr.  Adams  was  of  striking  personal  appearance  and 
magnetic  manner,  original  as  a  teacher,  and  graceful,  full  of 
force,  and  scholarly  in  public  address. 


ADDRESS 


BY  what  secret  sympathy  are  we  drawn  together  on 
this  day  of  the  calendar?  Something  more  is  it 
than  a  filial  regard  for  an  honored  ancestry ;  more  than 
a  fond  attachment  to  the  place  of  our  nativity,  though 
the  memory  of  the  homes  and  haunts  of  our  childhood 
be  bright  beyond  all  Arcadian  scenery.  Chiefly  is  it 
the  honest  conviction  that  the  event,  we  this  day  com- 
memorate, was  immediately  related  to  the  general  prog- 
ress and  happiness  of  the  human  race.  Were  pro- 
vincial pride  or  patronymic  pretension  the  motive  of 
our  celebration,  the  sooner  it  were  abandoned  the  bet- 
ter. But  if  it  be  true,  as  we  have  soberly  believed,  that 
the  small  company  who  landed  from  the  Mayfloiver  in 
1620,  were  an  important  link  in  the  long  drama  of 
human  history;  if  their  faith,  fortitude  and  success 
were  destined  to  tell  beyond  themselves  and  their  own 
times,  on  all  generations  and  all  lands,  then  is  there  no 
one  man,  wherever  born,  who  has  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree of  interest  in  them  than  another;  and  so  long  as 
we  study  the  ways  of  Providence  with  a  philosophic 
comprehension  and  a  kindly  heart,  no  place  can  be 
found  for  arrogant  pretension,  but  all  place  for  majes- 
tic humility,  Christian  charity  and  boundless  hope. 

Mr.  Carlyle,  with  his  characteristic  mannerism,  has 
said,  "the  best  thing  England  ever  did  was  Oliver 
Cromwell."  With  more  soberness  of  style  Mr.  Southey 

165 


1 66  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

has  justly  observed,  "that  there  is  no  portion  of  his- 
tory in  which  it  so  much  behooves  an  Englishman  to  be 
thoroughly  versed  as  in  that  of  Cromwell's  age."  Oli- 
ver Cromwell  was  New  England  working  on  British 
soil.  Puritanism  has  had  two  homes  and  histories, 
trans-Atlantic  and  cis-Atlantic.  The  origin  and  sub- 
stance of  the  thing  was  one,  but  the  stream  was  des- 
tined early  to  be  divided,  a  part  running  down  in  the 
regular  channels  of  British  history,  and  a  part  passing 
under  the  sea  and  reappearing  upon  our  own  shores 
with  prodigious  advantages  in  its  favor.  A  noble 
theme,  indeed,  is  Puritanism  in  its  relations  to  the  poli- 
tics, the  literature  and  the  religion  of  the  British  Isles ; 
great  things  has  it  accomplished,  whereof  we  are  glad, 
in  its  native  home;  reformed  abuses,  secured  rights, 
promoted  freedom ;  but  its  cis-Atlantic  development  has 
been  in  a  new  world,  on  a  virgin  soil,  far  removed  from 
those  ancient  institutions  and  associations  which  else- 
where have  modified  its  form  and  embarrassed  its  life. 
Nor  let  us  suppose  that  Puritanism  is  an  obsolete  tradi- 
tion. It  is  active  now ;  its  work  is  still  needed ;  its  his- 
tory is  not  yet  ended.  The  long  struggle  between 
freedom  and  despotism  is  not  yet  decided.  We  have 
still  need  to  be  fortified  in  the  principles  of  our  fathers. 
When  the  gentle  spirit  of  Christian  liberty  is  in  danger 
of  encroachment  on  the  one  hand  from  the  old  form  of 
arrogant  authority,  and  on  the  other  from  the  stealthier 
corrosion  of  false  philosophy,  it  is  well  for  us  to  recall 
the  forms  of  our  canonized  forefathers;  to  study  the 
lessons  which,  though  dead,  they  still  speak  to  us;  or, 
as  they  themselves  would  have  expressed  it,  when 
Christ  is  in  danger  of  being  crucified  afresh  between 
two  thieves,  it  is  time  that  many  of  the  Saints  who 
sleep  should  arise  and  come  out  of  their  graves  and 
appear  unto  many. 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  167 

A  good  history  of  Puritanism  is  yet  a  desideratum 
in  English  literature.  That  history  has  been  under- 
taken by  writers  not  a  few,  from  different  positions; 
but,  as  with  a  good  picture,  there  is  only  one  point  from 
which  it  can  be  viewed  aright;  every  other  is  too  high 
or  too  low,  too  near  or  too  remote.  We  have  often 
wished  that  Milton  had  brought  down  his  history  of 
England  to  his  own  times.  Perhaps  his  poetic  genius 
would  have  been  a  hinderance  rather  than  a  help;  cer- 
tainly he  was  too  near  the  origin  of  Puritanism  to  de- 
scribe those  triumphs  and  rewards  of  freedom  which 
gladden  our  eyes.  If  one  would  learn  the  affluence  and 
rotundity  of  the  English  language,  we  should  certainly 
advise  him  to  study  the  pages  of  Lord  Clarendon;  if  he 
would  acquire  forensic  eloquence,  or  the  art  of  special 
pleading,  we  should  counsel  him  to  read  Mr.  Hume. 
But  who  would  think  of  discovering  in  either  of  these 
distinguished  authors  a  just  conception  of  the  English 
Puritans?  Besides  that  which  is  substantial,  there  is 
much  extrinsic  and  incidental  in  their  life,  which  may 
catch  the  eye  of  the  most  superficial  observer ;  shadows 
to  displease,  and  charms  to  attract ;  much  that  is  repul- 
sive, and  much  that  is  heroic ;  and  many  a  bright  gleam 
of  beauty  shines  in  upon  their  serious  life,  as  the  win- 
ter's sun  casts  its  warm  smile  upon  the  solemn  pines 
and  cedars  of  New  England  woods.  But  when  we  pass 
beyond  all  forms  and  accidents  to  the  very  soul  of  their 
history,  we  find  it,  where  the  sympathies  of  many  his- 
torians cannot  reach — in  an  earnest  religion.  By  an 
effort  of  the  imagination,  I  can  conceive  of  Juvenal 
writing  odes  on  chastity,  Congreve  composing  church 
psalms,  Byron  writing  Hebrew  melodies,  and  Percy  B. 
Shelley  discoursing  on  theology;  the  only  incongruity 
which  my  imagination  absolutely  refuses  to  entertain  is, 
that  David  Hume,  the  sophist  and  the  skeptic,  was  in 


1 68  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

any  respect  qualified  to  write  an  impartial  history  of  the 
Puritans. 

Besides  these  deep-seated  antipathies  of  authors, 
there  are  other  difficulties  in  the  way  of  an  impartial 
description  of  these  remarkable  men.  As  a  party  they 
were  not  homogeneous.  No  one  man  stands  forth  as 
their  exponent  and  representative.  There  were  many 
differences  among  those  who  usually  pass  under  one 
name.  Some  of  the  best  of  the  Puritans,  considered  as 
to  doctrinal  belief,  never  separated  themselves  from  the 
National  Church ;  yet  were  they  as  really  of  the  move- 
ment as  any  who  went  to  Frankfort  or  Geneva.  Some 
struck  for  civil  liberty  only  as  that  was  incidentally  re- 
lated to  the  cause  of  religion;  while  others,  with  little 
thought  or  care  for  religion,  were  willing  to  be  classed 
with  the  Puritans,  because  of  their  enthusiasm  for  po- 
litical freedom.  It  has  ever  been  the  constant  tempta- 
tion of  authors  to  lose  sight  of  the  real  question  at  issue 
in  the  battle,  in  a  description  of  some  one  of  the  many 
heterogeneous  and  motley  hangers-on  of  the  army. 

Then  again,  reformers  are,  of  necessity,  men  of  pe- 
culiar qualities.  Bold,  impetuous,  severe,  rather  than 
refined,  elegant  and  loveable.  Their  weapons  are  not 
of  lath  but  veritable  steel.  In  days  of  ease,  we  pass  a 
false  judgment  on  men  who  wrote  with  fire  within,  and 
real  fire  around  them.  Open  any  book  in  our  language, 
and  you  may  know,  from  the  very  style  of  its  composi- 
tion, to  what  period  of  history  its  author  belonged. 
Every  page  of  Addison  breathes  of  luxurious  tran- 
quillity, rural  and  metropolitan.  Look  at  Harrington, 
Latimer  and  Milton,  and  you  feel  that  you  are  in  a  for- 
tification in  a  time  of  siege,  and  the  words  fly  hard- 
shotted,  and  at  a  white  heat.  From  this  fact  it  happens 
that  we  cannot  always  describe  reformers  by  the  quali- 
ties of  more  pacific  times.  Some  things  existed  in 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  169 

excess,  and  some  things  were  in  utter  defect.  We  must 
subtract  and  concede,  and  then  form  a  judgment. 
Their  life  was  not  a  simple  equation.  You  cannot  de- 
scribe it  by  indiscriminate  eulogy,  nor  indiscriminate 
censure.  There  was  action  and  reaction,  advantage 
and  disadvantage,  good  and  evil ;  and  we  are  only  con- 
cerned to  know  whether,  after  all  allowances  and  sub- 
tractions, the  good  does  not  preponderate.  Stand  by 
the  side  of  the  ocean  when  the  sea  is  coming  in,  and  you 
behold  weeds  and  wrecks,  the  dead  fish  and  the  swollen 
carcasses  of  animals,  things  unsightly,  heterogeneous 
and  confused,  drifting  to  the  shore;  and  you  listen  to 
the  wild  scream  of  the  sea-birds,  with  their  melancholy 
cry,  but,  notwithstanding,  we  tell  you  that  it  is  the 
great  tide  which  is  rising,  lifting  the  stranded  ship 
from  the  bar,  bearing  argosies  of  wealth  upon  its  bo- 
som, filling  up  all  the  channels  and  inlets,  and  bringing 
with  it  the  healthful  breeze  which  fans  a  continent 
with  the  tonic  airs  of  life. 

In  that  ingenious  classification  of  sciences  proposed 
by  Auguste  Comte,  a  prominent  place  is  assigned  to 
what  he  calls  sociology,  or  the  science  of  human  so- 
ciety. Whether  we  accept  the  speculations  of  the 
French  thinker  or  not,  we  must  hold  that  there  is  such  a 
reality  as  the  philosophy  of  history.  It  disturbs  our 
intellectual  repose,  to  be  told  that  events  occur,  sub- 
ject to  no  law,  proportioned  to  no  plan,  and  controlled 
by  no  Providence.  It  was  a  beautiful  conception  of 
classical  mythology,  that  the  Muse  of  history  was  the 
daughter  of  Jove ;  and  the  conviction  that  there  is  some 
design  which  gives  unity  to  human  history,  is  a  corol- 
lary from  the  belief  that  there  is  a  God  who  governs 
the  world  which  he  has  made.  By  some  infelicitous 
judgment,  what  is  termed  Ecclesiastical  History,  is 
made  the  special  reading  of  divines.  All  history  is  ec- 


1 70  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

clesiastical  history ;  for  the  Christian  religion  is  the  soul 
of  the  world,  the  end  and  solution  of  its  creation. 
It  was  not  a  clergyman,  but  Frederick  Von  Schlegel, 
who  said,  "without  this  faith  the  whole  history  of  the 
world  would  be  naught  else  than  an  insoluble  enigma, 
an  inextricable  labyrinth,  a  huge  pile  of  the  blocks  and 
fragments  of  an  unfinished  edifice,  and  the  great  trag- 
edy of  humanity  would  remain  devoid  of  all  proper 
result."  *  We  wonder  not  that  many,  eminent  for  their 
genius,  have  confessed  to  a  distaste  for  historical  read- 
ing, so  long  as  they  have  never  discovered  the  true 
point  of  perspective  from  which  to  study  the  picture 
which  God's  hand  has  thrown  upon  the  wall.  What 
care  I  to  know  that  Caesar  conquered  Judea ;  that  James 
was  a  bigot;  that  the  Puritans  went  into  exile;  if  I  do 
not  perceive  the  relations  of  these  events  to  that  true 
optimism,  the  Christian  faith,  which  involves  the  life 
and  liberty  of  the  world.  What  a  meagre  idea  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  that  which  represents  it  as  sym- 
bolized in  creeds  and  catechisms,  well  enough  to  be 
learned  by  children,  and  used  for  sharpening  the  intel- 
lect of  those  who  have  taste  and  leisure  for  discussing 
its  dry  abstractions;  or  as  a  salutary  medicine  for  the 
bruised  in  spirit;  a  form  which  hovers  chiefly  around 
churches  and  churchyards,  the  domain  of  the  clergy- 
man and  the  undertaker;  its  light  like  that  which  su- 
perstition has  seen  flickering  over  old  graves ;  a  skele- 
ton at  the  feast  while  the  music  and  the  revelry  go  on ; 
its  great  help  to  man  being  to  throw  a  bridge  over  the 
river  of  Death,  and  conduct  him  safely  to  another 
world.  Religion  is  life,  it  is  power.  Every  memory 
associated  with  this  day  honors  it  as  the  parent  of  Re- 
publics, the  patron  of  well-governed  States,  the  soul  of 
justice,  enterprise,  freedom  and  commerce;  and  not 
1  Philosophy  of  History,  Lect.  X. 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  171 

more  certain  is  it  that  the  whole  body  of  the  sea  is 
swayed  by  the  attractions  of  the  heavenly  orb,  than  that 
the  whole  surface  and  depths  of  society  are  yet  to  be 
governed  by  the  potent  laws  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Think  not  that  I  have  proposed  a  mere  professional 
service — though  it  be  true,  according  to  Cicero,  that 
the  Syrian  rhetorician  would  have  been  more  at  home 
had  he  spoken  before  Hannibal  of  rhetoric  rather  than 
war, — if,  pressing  at  once  to  the  heart  of  my  theme,  I 
undertake  to  show  what  were  the  relations  of  religion 
to  the  event  which  we  celebrate,  and  how  it  is  that  reli- 
gion is  the  imperishable  seed  of  true  liberty.  I  confess 
to  an  inability  to  comprehend  the  history  of  the  Puri- 
tans, their  essential  life  and  their  accidental  forms,  their 
wisdom  and  their  mistakes,  if  surveyed  from  any  posi- 
tion other  than  that  we  have  now  chosen. 

In  the  Royal  Museum  at  Stockholm,  among  other 
great  curiosities,  is  preserved,  with  religious  care,  the 
small,  unpretending,  Latin  Bible  of  Martin  Luther;  its 
margin  covered  with  notes  in  the  Reformer's  own  hand, 
a  prize  brought  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  out  of  Ger- 
many, and  worthy  to  be  saved  as  the  Ithuriel  weapon 
which,  in  the  lifetime  of  its  owner,  roused  fifty  millions 
of  people  to  life  and  freedom.  We  say  it  most  delib- 
erately and  soberly,  and  it  will  be  for  me  to  show  it,  the 
history  of  later  times  is  the  history  of  a  free  Bible.  Its 
working,  or  its  want,  explain  all  the  phenomena  of 
modern  society.  I  say  the  Bible,  because,  by  the  inven- 
tion of  the  art  of  printing,  that  book  is  made,  what,  be- 
fore, the  organism  of  the  Church  assumed  to  be,  the 
visible  symbol  and  exponent  of  Christianity  itself. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  was  not  an  ecclesias- 
tical schism,  but  a  great  moral  movement,  which  sent 
the  pulses  of  life  through  every  channel  of  society.  In 
the  year  1802,  just  half  a  century  ago,  the  National 


NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Institute  of  France  offered  a  premium  for  the  best  dis- 
sertation on  this  question:  "What  has  been  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Protestant  Reformation  on  the  political  con- 
dition of  different  European  States  and  the  progress  of 
letters?"  Villers,  the  successful  competitor,  with  con- 
summate felicity,  opens  his  admirable  essay  after  this 
manner :  "Had  an  assembly  of  savants,  prior  to  the  six- 
teenth century,  wished  to  ascertain  the  influence  of  any 
schism  from  the  Roman  See,  they  would  undoubtedly 
have  propounded  the  question  in  this  form :  'What  are 
the  evils  which  have  followed  this  impious  and  perni- 
cious doctrine?'  But  now  that  many  European  States 
are  separated  from  the  Papal  power,  an  assembly  of 
philosophers  in  a  country  still  attached  to  her  commu- 
nion, proposes  to  fix  the  influence  of  the  reformation  on 
European  society  and  the  progress  of  letters.  This 
change  in  the  language  implies  a  change  in  opinions; 
and  the  very  form  of  the  question  conveys  its  own 
answer." 

The  first  remarkable  conjunction  of  events,  demon- 
strating the  superintendence  of  Divine  Providence  in 
our  history  is,  that  Columbus  discovered  the  New 
World,  not  until  after  the  birth  of  that  German  Re- 
former, who  was  destined  to  give  form  and  direction  to 
the  new  movement  of  society.  As  the  Island  of  Delos 
floated  about  unfixed  and  unknown,  till  she  who  was 
to  be  the  mother  of  Apollo  and  Diana,  needed  it  for  an 
asylum,  when,  by  the  command  of  Jove,  it  rose  from 
the  sea,  pillared  firm  on  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 
to  be  the  birthplace  of  Wisdom  and  Freedom,  and  the 
chosen  site  of  that  temple  to  which  all  nations  should 
bring  their  offerings,  so  was  this  New  World  envel- 
oped in  the  mists  of  the  ocean,  its  rivers  running  si- 
lently to  the  sea,  its  vast  surface  waiting  for  a  future 
population,  its  existence  altogether  unknown,  till  the 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  173 

auspicious  moment  had  arrived,  when  God's  hand  lifted 
the  veil  of  the  sea,  and  a  new  continent  was  revealed  as 
the  home  of  new  men  and  the  theatre  for  a  new  act  in 
human  history. 

It  is  a  well-known  literary  fact,  that  Mr.  Hume 
wrote  his  history  of  the  Stuarts  before  the  narrative  of 
preceding  events.  As  well  begin  a  man's  biography  at 
the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age;  or  describe  a  ship  of  war 
under  full  sail,  ploughing  the  waves,  with  no  mention 
of  the  little  plank,  under  the  water,  which  turns  about 
her  bulk  and  glory.  True  and  well-chosen  are  the 
words,  with  which  Shakspeare  begins  his  historical 
drama  of  Henry  VIII. : 

"I  come  no  more  to  make  you  laugh ;  things  now 
That  bear  a  weighty  and  a  serious  brow, 
Sad,  high  and  working,  full  of  state  and  woe, 
Such  noble  scenes  as  draw  the  eye  to  flow, 
We  now  present." 

In  all  history  there  is  not  one  cycle  better  defined  and 
more  complete  than  that  which  sweeps  from  the  reign 
of  the  monarch  after  whom  the  dramatist  has  named 
this  interlocutory  chronicle,  down  to  the  passage  of  the 
later  reform  bills  of  England ;  and  the  soul  of  the  whole 
period  is  Religious  Liberty.  Are  we  sure  that  we  com- 
prehend the  real  meaning  of  these  familiar  words  ? 

The  Reformation  in  England,  unlike  its  contempo- 
rary movement  on  the  Continent,  which  beginning  with 
religion  went  on  to  politics,  began  with  politics  and 
went  on  to  religion.  It  has  been  given  as  a  humorous 
description  of  man,  that  he  is  a  creature  with  a  will  of 
his  own,  who  longs  to  be  Pope.  King  Henry  verified 
the  definition  in  his  own  case;  and  impatient  because 
the  incumbent  of  the  Papal  Chair  would  not  favor  his 
matrimonial  fancies,  this  royal  Bluebeard  resolved  that 


174  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  .ORATIONS 

he  would  do  as  he  liked,  and  set  up  Pope  for  himself. 
His  Protestantism  amounting  to  nothing  but  indepen- 
dence from  a  foreign  authority,  his  position  was  won- 
derfully unique  and  anomalous;  maintaining  Papal 
dogmas,  yet  defying  Papal  supremacy;  oddly  enough 
dragging  Protestants  and  Papists  to  execution  on  the 
same  hurdle;  the  former  for  disbelieving  transubstan- 
tiation,  the  latter  for  believing  the  Pope  was  supreme. 
But  the  beginning  of  strife  is  as  the  letting  out  of 
water ;  first  a  drop,  then  a  stream,  and  then  a  flood.  A 
change  in  one  respect  promised  changes  in  all.  Mythol- 
ogy informs  us  of  an  eagle,  purloining  meat  from  the 
altar  of  the  gods,  who  saw  not  the  coal  of  fire  cleaving 
to  her  prize,  which,  borne  away,  consumed  her  nest.  The 
Protestantism  of  the  King  began  in  self-will  and  pas- 
sion ;  but  the  Protestantism  of  his  subjects  had  a  celes- 
tial origin,  and  was  fanned  to  a  larger  and  yet  larger 
flame,  till  it  burned  up  the  last  relic  of  intolerance  and 
despotism.  While  the  politics  of  the  King  were  filling 
the  eye  and  ear  of  the  world,  there  was  a  new  power 
beginning  to  work,  without  observation,  which  was 
destined  to  change  every  aspect  of  the  controversy. 
The  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  by  Tyndale,  into 
the  English  tongue,  synchronizes  with  Henry's  rupture 
with  Leo  X.  It  was  read  with  prodigious  eagerness  by 
the  people.  The  translation  of  the  whole  Bible  soon  fol- 
lowed. Disposed  to  favor  an  act  which  sanctioned  his 
pretensions  in  the  controversy  with  Rome,  the  King 
himself  authorizes  its  distribution,  and  enjoins  it  upon 
all  preachers  to  insist  upon  its  use.  When  this  potent 
book  had  been  working  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
multitudes  for  twelve  years,  the  passionate  monarch 
saw  his  mistake,  and  endeavored  to  rectify  it.  He  in- 
terdicted what  before  he  had  permitted.  He  put  Tyn- 
dale to  death  for  having  translated  the  book  which  now 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  17 S 

he  feared.  A  little  book  is  that,  but  it  has  kindled  a 
great  fire.  Let  the  "Defender  of  the  Faith"  pursue  his 
own  policy,  play  his  own  game;  like  the  electric  chain 
which  feels  not  the  power  it  transmits  to  others,  he  has 
let  down  the  lightning  of  heaven  into  the  heart  of  a 
nation,  which  will  never  find  rest  again  until  it  has 
secured  for  itself  that  just  freedom  which  is  the  birth- 
right of  man.  The  controversy  has  now  fairly  com- 
menced. Here  is  a  reformation,  not  extrinsic  and  acci- 
dental, but  with  a  soul  in  it.  The  parties  perfectly 
understood  one  another;  though  there  were  many  side 
issues  and  collateral  disputes,  all  which  was  vital,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  was  included  in  this  controversy 
concerning  the  freedom  of  God's  word. 

It  were  too  much  in  a  discourse  like  this,  to  write  the 
history  of  this  great  strife.  But  observe  a  few  facts. 
In  the  reign  next  succeeding,  that  of  Edward  VI, 
facilities  for  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  were  multi- 
plied ;  and  just  in  that  proportion,  changes  occurred  in 
the  thinking  of  the  nation.  Then  ensued  the  reign  of 
Mary,  when  bigotry  sought  to  quench  the  heavenly 
spark  in  blood.  The  four  winds  blow  upon  the  great 
sea,  the  storm  rages,  and  the  floods  arise  and  foam. 
Fear  not  the  issue ;  for  that  little  book,  by  this  time,  has 
sent  its  roots  into  many  hearts,  and  they  will  be  the 
tougher  and  stronger  for  the  rocking  of  the  tempest. 
"When  Queen  Elizabeth  was  conducted  through  Lon- 
don, on  her  accession  to  the  throne,  amidst  the  joyful 
acclamations  of  her  subjects,  a  boy,  who  personated 
Truth,  was  let  down  from  one  of  the  triumphal  arches, 
and  presented  her  a  copy  of  the  Bible.  She  received 
the  book  with  the  most  gracious  deportment,  placed  it 
next  her  bosom,  and  declared  that,  amidst  all  the  costly 
testimonies  which  the  city  had  that  day  given  her  of 
their  attachment,  this  present  was  by  far  the  most 


i;6  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

precious  and  acceptable."  *  Hail,  ethereal  stranger ! 
Thou  hast  survived  the  flood,  and  hast  received  a  royal 
welcome !  Art  thou  the  coal  of  fire  from  the  altar,  des- 
tined to  repeat  and  finish  thy  former  service,  in  con- 
suming the  hay,  wood,  and  stubble  of  the  eagle's  nest? 
Little  enough  did  that  haughty  daughter  of  the  Tudors 
understand  what  she  did,  when,  on  that  day  of  pa- 
geantry, she  so  honored  the  Book  of  God.  We  shall 
hear  of  great  things  in  her  reign,  which  were  not  in  the 
programme  of  that  public  show.  Let  her  cleave  to  her 
semi-reforms;  addict  herself  to  papal  ceremonies;  insti- 
tute her  star-chamber  and  high  commissions ;  refuse  all 
toleration  to  sectaries;  determine  that  "no  man  should 
decline  right  or  left  from  the  drawn  line  of  her  author- 
ity;" it  is  all  too  late  to  reinstate  the  ancient  thraldom. 
What  she  did  in  form,  multitudes  had  done  in  earnest; 
pressed  that  Bible  to  their  hearts;  and  no  power  could 
destroy  the  freedom  which  was  nurtured  by  its  potent 
contact.  We  will  not  liken  that  Divine  Book  to  the 
Trojan  horse,  which  was  drawn  into  the  besieged  city 
by  the  inhabitants  themselves ;  for  that  contained  within 
itself  a  host  of  martial  men,  and  the  rattling  of  arms 
was  heard  as  it  went  over  the  wall;  but  we  are  sure 
that,  pacific,  truthful  and  celestial  as  is  its  nature,  it 
will  plant  the  seeds  of  great  revolutions,  and  time  only 
is  necessary  to  ripen  the  results  which  it  promises.  In 
the  reign  of  James  I.  was  prepared  that  translation  of 
the  Bible,  about  which  cluster  all  the  memories  and 
loves  of  those  who  speak  the  English  language  in  two 
hemispheres.  Let  that  "lubberly  fellow"  proclaim  his 
policy,  "no  bishop,  no  king;"  boast  of  his  skill  in  king- 
craft; let  him  make  a  fool  of  himself  in  his  theological 
discussions  at  Hampton  Court;  let  him  resolve  to 
"harry  the  Puritans  out  of  his  kingdom;"  in  enjoining 

1  Hume. 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  177 

a  standard  version  of  the  Bible,  he  has  done  one  thing, 
for  which  we  are  disposed  to  pardon  all  his  pedantry, 
all  his  buffoonery,  all  his  bigotry,  and  all  his  cruelty. 
We  forget  the  origin  of  the  good,  in  the  intrinsic  value 
of  the  blessing;  just  as  Samson  drank  of  the  miracu- 
lous stream,  without  so  much  as  once  remembering  that 
it  proceeded  from  the  jawbone  of  an  ass.  Follow  the 
history  of  that  book,  now  that  it  has  obtained  its  long- 
sought  liberty,  and  tell  me  whether  it  is  a  vain  fancy 
that  its  history  is  the  history  of  modern  times.  It  opens 
its  seals,  blows  its  trumpets,  and  utters  its  voices.  Soon 
we  hear  of  it  in  camps  and  parliaments.  It  is  made 
the  arbiter  of  last  appeal  between  kings  and  people. 
Cromwell  reads  out  of  it  to  his  troops  before  the  battle 
of  Naseby.  It  leads  on  the  struggles  of  non-confor- 
mity— that  Protestantism  of  Protestantism — that  dissi- 
dence  of  dissent.  At  every  stage  it  demands  more  and 
more  of  right  for  man ;  emancipates  from  one  servitude 
after  another;  and,  at  each  advance,  secures  a  better 
and  a  safer  liberty.  Literature  revives  at  its  presence, 
as  verdure  is  nourished  by  flowing  fountains.  All  the 
literature  of  the  English  tongue  has  been  created  since 
our  vernacular  version  of  the  Scriptures.  Pactolus, 
with  its  sands  of  gold,  rolls  not  so  rich  a  flood  as  that 
which  a  free  Bible  has  poured  along  the  affluent  chan- 
nels of  our  language,  producing  fertility  wherever  it 
spreads.  We  trace  its  effects,  not  merely  in  the  Bax- 
ters and  Howes,  who,  for  fire  of  patriotism,  force  of 
eloquence,  vastness  of  learning,  depth  of  erudition, 
never  had  their  superiors ;  but  in  the  large  observation 
and  serious  truthfulness  of  Shakspeare;  and  when  Mil- 
ton wrote  those  immortal  poems  which  are  the  crown- 
jewels  of  our  language,  it  was  as  if  religion,  emerging 
from  her  conflicts,  had  reached  her  royal  coronation, 
and  put  the  well-earned  diadem  upon  her  head,  amid  a 


1 78  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

"sevenfold  chorus  of  hallelujahs  and  harping  sym- 
phonies." That  same  emancipated  book,  comes  over  in 
the  Mayflower;  the  first  compact  of  constitutional  lib- 
erty was  written  on  its  cover;  it  has  a  home  in  every 
cabin  which  sends  up  its  smoke  in  the  wilderness;  it 
cheers  the  toil  of  the  lonely  exile ;  it  was  read  in  every 
school  and  family ;  it  was  carried  in  their  knapsacks  by 
the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution ;  and  when  the  American 
Republic  was  founded,  George  Washington  laid  his 
honest  hand  upon  this  book,  to  take  the  oath  of  office ; 
and  by  this  time,  a  whole  nation  was  so  thoroughly 
bred  in  its  precepts,  that  the  idea  that  an  official  oath 
could  be  falsified  by  any  coup  d'etat,  never  so  much  as 
entered  the  imagination  of  an  American  citizen. 

Now  let  us  go  back  and  show  that  this  synchronism 
of  events  was  not  accidental,  and  verify  our  assertion, 
that  the  freedom  of  the  Bible  was  the  source  and 
pledge  of  all  other  freedom.  Let  me  prove  to  you, 
that  the  key  which  we  now  have  in  our  hands  is  the 
only  one  which  can  unlock  the  character  of  the  Puritans, 
explaining  alike  their  virtues  and  their  errors. 

They  claimed  the  right  to  possess,  read,  and  inter- 
pret the  Word  of  God.  That  right  was  denied;  and 
here  the  controversy  began.  In  that  principle  which 
they  asserted,  you  have  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
which  is  the  very  soul  of  freedom.  How  shall  we  de- 
fine the  right  of  private  judgment?  I  answer,  partly 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Macaulay,  "We  conceive  it  not  to 
be  this,  that  opposite  opinions  may  both  be  true;  nor 
this,  that  truth  and  falsehood  are  both  equally  good; 
nor  yet  this,  that  all  speculative  error  is  necessarily  in- 
nocent; but  this,  that  there  is  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
no  visible  body  to  whose  decision  men  are  bound  to 
submit  their  private  judgments  on  points  of  faith." 
The  written  Word  of  God  is  the  only  authority  in  mat- 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  179 

ters  pertaining  to  religion;  to  every  man  belongs  the 
right  of  consulting,  interpreting,  and  obeying  this  for 
himself,  uncoerced  by  penalties,  imbribed  by  partiali- 
ties. No  human  power,  individual  or  organized,  may 
in  any  form  or  degree  restrict  this  absolute  freedom. 
See  you  not  that  the  very  first  claim  by  the  Puritan  was 
a  blow  struck  for  human  rights  and  human  liberty? 
He  looks  into  the  Book  of  God,  and  learns  that  he  is 
a  man.  In  finding  his  religion,  he  finds  his  humanity. 
His  soul  dilates  with  the  conception  that  the  Creator 
speaks  to  him  as  his  own  child  and  image,  addressing 
his  reason,  affections,  and  choice.  With  Moses,  he 
ascends  the  mount  of  the  law;  with  Elijah,  he  hears 
the  still  small  voice  of  God  on  Horeb;  with  the  Apos- 
tles, he  accompanies  our  Lord  to  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration ;  and  with  John,  is  he  caught  up  to  the  third 
heavens,  to  behold  the  vision  of  the  new  Jerusalem. 
The  first  claim  of  Puritanism  was  an  assertion  of  the 
democratic  idea  in  its  purest  and  sublimest  form.  Its 
very  rudiment  was  religion  asserting  popular  rights. 
Shall  man  take  away  what  God  has  given  ?  That  which 
began  with  one  claim  was  sure  to  advance  to  others. 
Withstanding  arrogance  and  despotism  in  the  assertion 
of  the  right  to  the  book  which  God  had  addressed  to 
our  individuality,  Puritanism  from  the  beginning  was 
pledged  against  all  forms  and  acts  of  tyranny,  and  po- 
litical reforms  were  born  of  religious  liberty.  In  that 
remarkable  production,  the  "New  England  Printer" 
familiar  in  past  times  to  all  the  homes  and  schools  of 
our  country,  whose  pictorial  representations,  if  they 
did  not  inspire  a  taste  for  the  fine  arts,  most  certainly 
created  an  undying  hatred  of  all  tyranny,  are  many 
things  "hard  to  be  understood."  We  wonder  not  that 
many  a  young  memory  and  understanding  broke  down 
at  effectual  calling.  But  as  we  reach  habits  of  thought- 


1 8o  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

fulness  and  observation,  we  grow  into  the  meaning  of 
the  compendious  truth,  "They  who  are  effectually 
called  do  partake  of  justification,  adoption,  and  sancti- 
fication,  and  the  several  benefits  which  in  this  life  do 
either  accompany  or  How  from  them."  What  an  afflu- 
ent stream  is  that  which  flows  from  such  a  fountain! 
What  benefits  are  those  which  accompany  such  a  lofty 
vocation !  What  manifold  rights  of  the  people  are  in- 
volved in  the  first  great  law  of  religion,  that  the  soul 
shall  be  free!  What  a  growth  of  intelligence,  enter- 
prise, industry,  wealth  and  happiness,  is  included  in 
that  germ  of  a  personal  relation  to  God !  Wonder  not 
that  when  Sir  Edmund  Andros  came  over  as  the  emis- 
sary of  James  II.,  to  take  away  the  charter  of  the  colo- 
nies, the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  bred  in  the  great 
principles  of  religion,  in  the  fearless  assertion  of  civil 
liberty,  quietly  locked  up  that  august  personage  in  the 
castle  of  Boston  before  they  ever  had  heard  of  the  dis- 
placement of  the  Stuarts  and  the  accession  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange.  This  is  the  way  in  which  God 
makes  free  Republics;  not  by  philosophical  theories, 
and  French  politics.  He  makes  free  men  by  a  free 
Bible;  the  grant  of  one  liberty  is  the  Magna  Charta 
of  all. 

It  is  customary  in  many  quarters  to  represent  the 
Puritans  as  "ridiculous  precisians,"  quarrelling  about 
vestments  and  forms.  One  might  think,  so  much  is 
said  about  caps,  surplices  and  rochets,  that  there  was  a 
sober  truth  in  the  humorous  conception  of  Sartor  Re- 
sartus,  that  "Society  is  founded  on  clothes."  But  this 
is  a  superficial  view  of  the  matter.  Those  ecclesiastical 
vestments  concerning  which  disputes  ran  so  high,  were 
only  the  symbols  of  antagonistic  principles.  You 
would  not  scoff  at  the  American  Revolution  as  a  con- 
test about  a  few  chests  of  tea ;  or  the  Wars  of  Succes- 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  181 

sion  as  waged  for  the  color  of  roses;  nor  ridicule  the 
strife  of  great  parties  as  a  dispute  concerning  the  hue 
of  the  cockades  they  wore  in  their  hats.  The  Puritans 
had  read  in  that  free  book,  which  was  their  law  and 
light,  that  man  is  justified  by  faith,  and  while  they 
were  exulting  in  their  spiritual  freedom,  there  crossed 
their  path  the  form  of  arrogant  authority,  which,  in 
God's  name,  demanded  of  them  something  above  what 
was  written.  And  what  was  it  that  they  were  required 
by  royal  authority  to  wear?  Those  garments  and  ap- 
pendages which,  by  long  usage  and  mystical  meaning, 
were  associated  in  every  mind  with  that  ultramontane 
power  whose  jurisdiction  they  had  disowned  and  ab- 
horred. Thus  it  happened  that  one  of  the  first  points 
at  which  great  principles  met  in  battle,  related  to  mat- 
ters so  trifling  as  ecclesiastical  vestments  and  forms  of 
worship.  But  why  dispute  at  all  upon  points  so  trivial  ? 
Were  they  not  things  in  themselves  indifferent?  No 
sensible  person  did  dispute  concerning  them  so  long  as 
they  were  regarded  as  indifferent.  Had  the  dress  pre- 
scribed to  be  worn  by  the  clergy  been  a  simple  scho- 
lastic garb,  suited  to  the  decency  and  gravity  of  public 
worship;  had  this  been  recommended,  rather  than  pre- 
scribed under  penalty  of  deposition,  no  Puritan  would 
have  objected  to  its  use.  The  ground  assumed  by 
Bishop  Hooper  in  refusing  to  be  consecrated  in  the 
specified  vestments,  is  sufficiently  catholic,  modest,  and 
manly.  But  when  the  matter  in  dispute  was  known  by 
all  parties  to  involve  the  vital  questions  of  the  times; 
when  it  was  perfectly  well  understood  by  all,  that, 
wrapped  up  in  the  folds  of  those  clerical  habits,  was  the 
old  controversy  concerning  the  supremacy  of  God  and 
the  freedom  of  man,  there  was  no  place  for  indecision. 
The  Puritan  saw  that  the  book  of  Leviticus  belonged 
to  the  Old  Testament  and  not  to  the  New;  and  he 


1 82  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

would  not  put  "petticoats"  in  the  place  of  faith.  When 
Bishop  Day  spoke  to  Archbishop  Gardiner  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  that  intolerant  hierarch  exclaimed,  "If 
you  open  that  gap  to  the  people,  then  farewell  all 
again."  Both  parties  knew  perfectly  well  what  they 
were  about;  and  when  the  one  enjoined  and  com- 
manded, as  God's  representatives,  human  inventions 
and  the  badges  of  human  pretension,  the  others,  know- 
ing the  result  to  which  the  first  admission  would  lead, 
that  the  controversy  could  be  settled  just  as  well  on  an 
inch  as  a  continent,  afraid  of  that  bondage  which  would 
begin  its  thraldom  in  requirements  soft  and  silken  as 
satin  vestments,  took  their  ground  and  exclaimed  aloud, 
"Out  with  the  bondwoman  and  her  sons,  we  are  chil- 
dren of  the  free."  When  the  monarch  undertook  to 
force  them  into  conformity  to  Popish  habits  under  pen- 
alty of  that  English  inquisition,  the  Court  of  High 
Commission,  it  stirred  their  blood,  and  you  cannot  cen- 
sure their  course  without  condemning  the  Revolution 
of  1688  and  the  accession  of  the  Prince  of  Orange — 
the  latter  being  only  an  advanced  result  of  the  former. 
Puritanism  a  dispute  about  clothes !  A  rag  may  prove 
the  volume,  rapidity  and  power  of  the  swollen  current 
on  which  it  rides.  That  glorious  flag  which  is  our 
pride  and  protection,  by  sea  and  land,  what  is  it  but  a 
piece  of  woollen  bunting,  with  imitations  of  certain 
stars  and  stripes?  Aye!  what  is  it?  There  is  a 
whole  history  in  it.  It  is  the  symbol  of  a  nation's  free- 
dom and  independence.  The  memories,  pride,  patriot- 
ism of  a  whole  people  are  in  its  folds ;  and  as  oft  as  it 
is  spread  over  our  heads,  the  heart  strikes  quicker  and 
stronger,  and  the  step  is  firmer  and  manlier.  Whoever 
would  ridicule  the  precision  of  the  Puritan  in  refusing 
to  wear  the  prescribed  Papal  habits,  let  him  know  that 
that  refusal  was  born  of  the  freedom  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment; and  we  shall  meet  it  again  in  political  history, 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  183 

when  the  controversy  relates  to  such  littlenesses  as  ship 
money  and  paper  stamps. 

It  is  said  to  be  a  peculiarity  of  people  born  in  New- 
England,  by  which  they  may  always  be  known,  that 
they  have  a  habit  of  asking  questions.  Undoubtedly 
they  have.  But  that  habit  was  not  born  of  a  discour- 
teous and  impertinent  inquisitiveness,  a  meddling  with 
other  men's  matters;  it  has  a  nobler  pedigree.  There 
underlies  this  national  and  sometimes  troublesome  pe- 
culiarity, a  great  and  potent  principle,  the  root  of  our 
history  and  the  marrow  of  our  bones.  All  reforms  begin 
with  asking  questions.  A  few  centuries  ago  the  world 
was  overshadowed  with  authority.  Opinions  were  pre- 
scribed alike  in  politics,  philosophy  and  religion,  by  one 
uniform  despotism.  The  dialectics  of  Aristotle  reigned 
supreme  in  the  Universities,  when  Lord  Bacon  began  to 
experiment  and  inquire,  throwing  into  the  crucible,  and 
asking  what  things  were  made  of  and  made  for;  and 
forthwith  the  new  Philosophy  was  born.  The  Puritan 
also  began  to  ask  questions ;  how  it  was  that  a  woman, 
whom  the  Apostle  had  forbidden  to  speak  in  public, 
could  be  the  Chief  Bishop  of  the  Church  ?  Who  it  was 
that  had  the  right  to  curtail  his  freedom  in  the  worship 
of  God  ?  Whence  did  that  right  proceed  ?  Just  so  soon 
Religion  was  reformed,  put  on  her  beautiful  garments, 
and  bounded  on  her  career  of  light  and  freedom. 
James  enraged  and  alarmed  his  subjects,  by  affirming 
that  they  had  no  more  right  to  inquire  what  he  might 
lawfully  do,  than  what  the  Deity  might  lawfully  do; 
but  the  Puritan,  believing  that  the  Church  of  England 
was  originally  founded  on  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment alone,  immediately  asked  why  he  should  submit 
his  private  judgment  to  that.  The  political  reformer 
caught  the  spirit  of  investigation,  and  began  to  ask, 
What  is  the  foundation  of  this  old  adage:  "The  King 
can  do  no  wrong?"  Do  not  crowns  and  thrones  some- 


1 84  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

times  cost  more  than  they  come  to,  asked  the  Round- 
head; and  Republics  were  born  in  their  place.  So  be 
it  that  the  questions  propounded  are  sensible,  they  are 
the  voices  of  freedom  and  the  index  of  manhood. 
Doubtless  the  habit  may  exist  in  excess,  degenerating 
into  frivolity  or  exaggeration.  Many  a  beautiful  work 
of  Art  and  production  of  Nature  has  been  spoiled  by 
inquisitive  boyhood  wishing  to  see  what  was  inside  of 
it;  but  we  say  it  soberly,  that  investigation  is  the  parent 
of  all  freedom;  free  inquiry  the  stability  of  all  right;  and 
that  so  soon  as  it  is  gone,  nothing  but  insipidity  or  des- 
potism remains.  In  the  history  of  forensic  eloquence, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  more  political  wisdom  or 
common  sense  than  were  packed  into  the  brief  speech  of 
the  late  Duke  of  Wellington  on  the  Reform  Bill :  "My 
Lords,  this  measure  was  demanded  by  the  people;  it 
has  passed  the  House  of  Commons.  I  think  it  wise 
that  it  should  pass  the  House  of  Lords.  Otherwise  the 
people  may  take  it  into  their  heads  to  ask  the  question, 
'What  use  is  there  in  having  any  House  of  Lords  at 
all?'" 

If  our  fathers,  as  the  freemen  of  the  Lord,  had  not 
pressed  the  right  sort  of  questions,  there  had  remained 
to  us  no  freedom  whatever. 

Again,  it  has  been  said  that  the  Puritans  rendered 
themselves  and  their  cause  ridiculous  by  the  nakedness 
of  their  religion,  the  sourness  of  their  faces,  and  the 
austerity  of  their  manners ;  that  they  did  violence  to  the 
finer  instincts  of  our  nature,  and  are  responsible  for  the 
licentiousness  and  infidelity  which  afterwards  ensued. 
Mistakes,  undoubtedly,  they  made;  but  we  are  disposed 
to  say,  with  Horace : 

"Verum  ubi  plura  nitent  in  carmine,  non  ego  paucis 
Offendar  maculis;"1 

1  De  Arte  Poetica. 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  185 

which,  in  a  free  translation,  may  be  rendered,  "When 
the  sun  shines,  never  mind  the  spots."  Mistakes,  grave 
and  sorrowful  they  made,  we  admit  Had  they  avoided 
them,  they  would  have  been  more  than  human.  You 
cannot  understand  those  mistakes  unless  you  bear  in 
mind  the  controversy  in  which  they  were  engaged.  As 
with  their  virtues,  so  with  their  errors,  both  are  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  issue  between  Freedom  and  Tyr- 
anny, to  which  they  were  pledged.  Do  you  not  know 
that  in  polemics  men  always  drive  one  another  to  ex- 
tremes; and  that,  in  proportion  to  the  violence  of  the 
contact,  is  the  force  of  the  rebound?  The  pendulum 
which  is  thrown  to  the  utmost  limit  in  one  direction,  is 
sure  to  swing  as  far  in  the  opposite;  and  it  will  oscil- 
late for  a  long  time  backwards  and  forwards,  before  it 
reposes  in  the  true  medium.  You  laugh  at  the  Puritans 
because  they  gave  their  sons  and  their  daughters  such 
uncouth  names,  out  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments; 
by  the  strangest  solecism,  calling  their  first-born  son 
ICHABOD;  their  well-beloved  daughter  TRIBULATION, 
or  GODLY  SORROW  ;  interlarding  their  conversation  and 
speeches  with  Scriptural  phrases,  and  appending  or 
affixing  to  the  names  of  their  captains  and  leaders 
whole  verses  out  of  the  Bible,  as  if  it  were  their  study 
to  become  as  disagreeable  and  ridiculous  as  possible. 
But  we  have  seen  that  the  very  question  at  issue  be- 
tween them  and  their  antagonists  related  to  the  author- 
ity and  freedom  of  the  Bible;  and,  just  in  proportion  as 
that  authority  was  denied,  and  that  freedom  was  cur- 
tailed, they  were  resolved  that  both  should  be  asserted 
and  honored.  That  which  strikes  our  ear  as  a  laugh- 
able mistake,  at  this  distance  of  time,  had  no  such  sound 
when  the  old  battle  was  raging.  If  the  one  party  stud- 
ied to  avoid  the  Bible,  and  do  it  despite,  choosing  the 
names  of  their  children  out  of  profane  classics,  the  ro- 


1 86  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

mances  of  the  Troubadours,  or  the  Roman  Calendar, 
would  it  not  be  the  likeliest  thing  in  the  world,  that  the 
opposite  party  would  show  their  hand  by  selecting  prae- 
nomens  out  of  the  Book  for  which  they  were  contend- 
ing; and  that  with  an  utter  disregard  of  sound  and 
sense?  Is  there  no  principle  of  our  nature,  to  say 
nothing  of  religion,  by  which  we  readily  explain  the 
fact  that,  when  the  King  issued  his  Book  of  Sports, 
commanding  men  to  frequent  bear-gardens  on  Sun- 
days, on  that  very  account  they  would  go  in  greater 
numbers  to  the  conventicle;  and  that,  on  their  way 
thither,  their  faces  would  be  drawn  down  into  an  un- 
usual length  and  awful  gravity?  If  bacchanalian  cho- 
ruses were  the  choice  of  the  roystering  reprobates  on 
the  one  side,  do  you  wonder  that  barbarous  versions  of 
the  Psalms,  and  these  delivered  by  some  with  an  un- 
necessary drawl  and  nasal  twang,  were  in  use  by  the 
opposition?  When  the  war  was  active  between  two 
immense  forces,  is  it  strange  that  every  sign,  badge 
and  emblem  of  the  one  should  be  stripped  off,  and  even 
trampled  under  foot  by  the  other  ?  Because  the  cross, 
that  beautiful  symbol  of  our  faith,  was  then  the  ensign 
of  a  political  party  which  they  esteemed  aggressive 
and  despotic ;  therefore,  the  Puritans  took  it  down  from 
their  church  steeples,  and  substituted  a  bare  weather- 
cock, guiltless  of  all  such  associations.  Say  now,  in 
these  easy  days  of  toleration,  that  they  carried  their 
antipathies  too  far;  but  go  back  to  the  times  when  the 
strife  was  pending  to  which  all  our  liberties  are  to  be 
traced,  and  say  whether  you  cannot  do  more  than  jus- 
tify, even  honor  the  sacrifice  which  stripped  off  the 
decorations  of  Religion  in  order  to  save  its  life.  It  was 
ABRAHAM  offering  up  his  own  son,  JEPHTHA  sacrific- 
ing his  own  daughter,  when  the  Puritan  showed  his 
purpose  to  forego  some  of  the  sweetest  privileges  of  his 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  187 

faith,  on  the  principle  that  what  was  lawful,  in  itself, 
was  not  expedient  or  right  in  those  critical  exigencies 
which  were  to  decide  the  destinies  of  generations.  I 
speak  not  of  the  present  times,  but  there  is  not  a  man 
of  us  who,  had  it  been  his  lot  to  take  part  in  the  strug- 
gles of  our  fathers,  would  not  have  refused  the  observ- 
ance of  Christmas,  that  annual  festival  which  was  gar- 
landed with  all  the  memories  of  ancestry,  just  so  soon 
as  it  was  understood  that  the  name  itself  was  a  symbol 
of  the  great  strife  to  which  all  were  pledged.  For  the 
same  reason  was  it,  because  one  party  addressed  prayers 
to  a  multitude  of  Saints,  some  of  whom,  to  say  the 
least,  were  of  a  doubtful  character,  therefore  the  Puri- 
tan refused  the  prefix  of  Saint  even  to  the  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles,  and  the  Disciple  who  leaned  on  Jesus' 
bosom.  Because  the  Romanist  prescribed  the  duty  of 
praying  for  the  dead,  the  Puritan,  to  avoid  the  least  im- 
putation of  what  he  regarded  an  unscriptural  error, 
declined  all  religious  services  at  the  interment  of  his 
friends.  The  first  instance  in  which  it  is  known  that  a 
prayer  was  offered  at  a  funeral  in  New-England,  was 
so  late  as  1685,  at  the  interment  of  Rev.  William 
Adams,  of  Dedham,  Massachusetts,  an  act  which  at- 
tracted much  observation  and  comment  at  the  time.1 
Puritanism,  the  nakedness  of  religion!  It  was  the 
nakedness  of  the  athlete,  entering  the  arena,  stripping 
himself  of  every  robe  which  would  embarrass  his  limbs, 
before  wrestling  for  very  life.  The  struggle  past,  won- 
der not  that  the  victor,  as  he  carried  away  the  Book  for 
which  he  had  fought,  held  up  high  and  foremost  his 
glorious  prize;  that,  in  the  outburst  of  his  enthusiasm 
and  exultation,  he  poured  scorn  on  all  things  profane 
and  human,  in  opposition  to  the  object  of  his  reverence 
and  faith.  Wonder  not  that  when  he  took  it  with  him 
1Sewall's  Diary. 


1 88  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

into  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower — a  free  dove  into  the 
ark — he  solaced  his  lonely  voyage  with  its  sublime  reve- 
lations; that  three  sermons  a  day  throughout  the  pas- 
sage charmed  the  weariness  of  the  exiles,  and  that  their 
jubilant  psalms  mingled  day  and  night  with  the  roar 
of  the  winds,  and  the  everlasting  anthem  of  the  ocean. 
Think  it  not  strange  that  men,  emerging  from  such  a 
history,  should  require  some  time  to  relax  their  reli- 
gious austerity,  and  discover,  in  new  circumstances,  the 
happy  medium.  Smile  not  at  the  great  truth  which  is 
hidden  in  the  playful  remark  of  that  veracious  histo- 
rian, Mr.  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,  that  "the  colonists 
unanimously  resolved  that  they  would  take  the  legisla- 
tion of  Moses  as  the  laws  of  the  province,  till  such  time 
as  they  had  leisure  to  make  better."  What  else,  in  all 
consistency,  could  they  do,  than  honor  the  Book  against 
which  government,  authority  and  letters  had  so  long 
been  in  arms?  Thus  of  necessity,  from  the  very  en- 
thusiasm of  their  success,  they  pendulated  into  the  ex- 
treme of  severity.  The  forced  conformity  of  the  Eng- 
lish commonwealth,  and  the  legislative  gravity  of  the 
New-England  colonists,  were  mistakes,  as  we  say;  but 
they  were  mistakes  which  no  human  wisdom  could 
have  escaped.  There  are  some  things  in  our  nature 
which  never  can  be  coerced.  Seriousness  is  one,  and 
laughter  is  another.  The  Puritans  rebelled  when  King 
James  commanded  them  to  play  according  to  law.  We 
wish  now  that  they  could  have  remembered  the  same 
law  of  humanity  when  they  sought  to  make  men  serious 
according  to  statute.  For  myself,  I  have  never  won- 
dered at  the  phenomena  of  New-England  witchcraft. 
Unless  human  nature  has  materially  changed  since  the 
days  of  our  boyhood,  I  incline  to  think  that,  were  the 
same  enactments  in  force  now  which  existed  two  centu- 
ries ago  in  Massachusetts,  relative  to  the  forced  gravity 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  189 

of  the  young,  queer  things  would  occasionally  make 
their  appearance  down  the  chimneys ;  incomprehensible 
pins  would  be  stuck  into  the  flesh  of  aged  gravity,  and 
unaccountable  missiles  would  be  projected  by  invisible 
hands. 

Nor  is  this  all  which  can  be  said  of  Puritanical  aus- 
terity. There  is  a  liberty  which  leads  to  lawlessness. 
The  heroes  of  Plutarch,  with  their  passionate  love  of 
freedom,  had  no  conception  of  the  laws  by  which  that 
freedom  should  be  moderated  and  restrained.  No  ser- 
vitude is  so  debasing  as  liberty  without  law.  All  his- 
tory had  chronicled  the  same  story — those  who  would 
be  free,  baffled  by  their  own  success,  and  buried  beneath 
their  own  triumphs — independence  leading  to  wealth, 
wealth  to  luxury,  luxury  to  impatience  of  control,  and 
this,  by  rapid  stages,  to  effeminacy,  corruption,  vassal- 
age, and  destruction.  A  new  thing  was  that  which  the 
Puritan  had  undertaken.  Liberty,  which  tends  to  ex- 
cess, he  sought  to  moderate  and  control.  Hence  he 
subjected  himself  to  severe  discipline.  Breaking  away 
from  the  authority  of  the  King,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  he 
put  himself  under  the  authority  of  God.  He  struck  for 
freedom,  and  conquered  himself.  He  demanded  his 
rights,  and  passed  his  "self-denying  ordinances."  The 
more  he  was  coerced  into  rebellion  against  political  and 
ecclesiastical  usurpation,  the  more  weights  and  laws, 
denials  and  mortifications,  he  laid  on  himself.  That 
liberty  which  he  espoused  was  not  the  goddess  of 
which  Pagans  had  sung,  with  a  loose  dress,  a  flushed 
cheek,  bacchanalian  voice  and  dancing  step ;  rather  was 
it,  in  the  imagery  of  the  book  he  had  studied  so  wisely 
and  loved  so  well,  a  "chaste  virgin,"  whose  very  smile 
was  sobered  with  gravity,  whose  beauty  was  that  of 
serious  thought,  and  whose  every  grace  of  garment, 
word  and  manner,  declared  not  only  the  spirit  of  life, 


190  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

but  the  law  of  religion  at  the  heart.  The  Puritan  was 
not  the  first  man  who  had  fought  heroically  and  suc- 
cessfully for  freedom;  but  he  was  the  chief  of  those, 
who  having  obtained  it,  however  intolerant  he  may 
have  been,  was  not  intoxicated  and  ruined  by  it.  He 
did  more  than  break  the  bands  of  the  Philistines;  he 
avoided  the  effeminacy  of  pleasure,  and  rigidly  adhered 
to  that  self-control  and  abstemiousness  in  which  was 
the  secret  of  his  strength.  Hence  gravity  with  him  was 
a  study,  and  austerity  a  law.  His  dread  of  the  play- 
house, the  bear-garden,  the  dance  and  the  revel,  was  his 
mode  of  expressing  a  great  truth — that  man,  if  he 
would  preserve  and  enjoy  liberty,  must  keep  himself 
from  those  things,  which  tend  to  the  destruction  of  lib- 
erty. Say  he  was  mistaken  as  to  modes  and  degrees; 
who  shall  question  the  truth  of  his  judgment  ?  Our  lib- 
erties may  be  secured  in  charters  and  constitutions; 
but  who  or  what  shall  guarantee  us  against  the  ex- 
cesses of  liberty  but  self-control  in  the  individual  man? 
The  motive  power,  the  mainspring,  the  regulator,  bal- 
ance and  detent,  must  be  combined  in  the  same  mechan- 
ism. Give  to  the  comet  its  centrifugal  force  alone,  and 
it  will  burn  and  destroy,  strewing  its  lawless  flight 
with  blazing  ruin;  but  join  therewith  the  centripetal 
power,  and  it  will  be  sure  to  turn  at  the  right  point,  and 
shoot  along  its  boundless  path,  itself  a  world  of  fire, 
yet  passing  between  other  worlds  without  collision  or 
harm,  awakening  only  admiration  at  the  harmony  and 
beauty  of  the  mighty  laws  it  obeys.  Show  us  where 
and  when  there  has  been  a  political  revolution  in  these 
modern  times,  favorable  to  liberty,  which  has  been  suc- 
cessful without  this  combination  of  life  and  law,  im- 
pulse and  restraint,  which  is  secured  by  the  Christian 
faith.  No  man  understands  the  politics  or  literature 
of  Continental  Europe,  who  remembers  not  that  infi- 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  191 

delity  once  arose  in  mighty  wrath  against  despotism, 
enlisting  herself  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  humanity, 
asserting  man's  rights  with  an  eloquent  tongue  and  de- 
fending his  weakness  with  a  strong  arm ;  but  when  the 
old  tyranny  was  dethroned,  the  successful  combatant 
put  the  torch  to  the  temples  of  religion  and  liberty, 
burned  up  its  own  house,  and  like  the  demoniac  in  the 
New  Testament,  went  raging  about  among  the  tombs, 
cutting  its  own  flesh,  and  refusing  alike  the  restraints 
of  chains  and  clothes.  English  Puritanism  uprose 
against  the  same  despotism ;  but  when  its  victories  were 
won,  it  reared  its  churches  and  school-houses;  casting 
away  the  chain,  it  held  itself  in  firm  faith  to  truth  and 
duty ;  with  the  Bible  in  its  hand  and  prayer  in  its  heart, 
it  went  to  work  to  build  up  free  institutions  on  the 
foundations  of  religion.  Therein  lies  the  difference  be- 
tween the  history  of  Puritan  republicanism  and  all  the 
mournful  disappointments  of  the  world. 

One  thing  more  remains  to  be  said  to  complete  our 
analysis.  That  book  which  was  the  Puritan's  law,  had 
taught  him  a  great  truth  of  history — the  justice  of  the 
Almighty;  in  the  faith  of  the  ultimate  vindication  of 
which  he  was  armed  for  duty  and  endurance.  There 
are  many  forms  of  heroism ;  the  highest  often  the  least 
honored.  The  soldier  sits  composedly  on  his  charger 
in  the  face  of  danger,  or  rushes  into  "the  imminent 
deadly  breach,"  but  it  is  with  the  flag  of  his  country 
floating  proudly  over  him,  with  the  inspiration  of  mar- 
tial music  thrilling  his  every  nerve;  with  the  proud 
consciousness  that  a  nation's  eyes  are  fixed  on  his  bear- 
ing, and  should  he  fall,  a  nation's  hand  would  hang 
wreaths  of  honor  upon  his  urn.  Our  fathers  espoused 
a  good  cause,  and  believing  that  a  just  God  would,  one 
day,  vindicate  it  and  them,  they  displayed  the  higher 
heroism  of  patient  fortitude  under  suffering  unob- 


192  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

served  and  unapplauded.  Nor  are  we  to  suppose  that 
to  them  was  given  any  adequate  conception  of  the  mag- 
nificent results  of  their  decision.  God  makes  men  great 
by  withholding  from  them  the  knowledge  of  their 
greatness;  hiding,  as  by  a  veil,  pierced  here  and  there 
for  mere  glimpses  of  the  future,  the  splendid  rewards 
of  their  actions,  while  strengthening  them  in  a  stead- 
fast trust  in  present  duty.  Could  they,  whose  serious 
features  we  recall  to-night  with  filial  reverence,  have 
foreseen  all  the  results  which  we  now  behold ;  the  laws, 
the  governments,  the  civilization  which  have  followed 
their  wisdom  and  valor;  could  they  have  known  what 
changes  in  the  world  would  occur  in  consequence  of 
their  great  sacrifices,  the  enthusiasm  of  that  vision 
would  have  relieved  their  life  of  all  its  bitterness.  But 
this  was  the  heroism  of  their  faith.  Like  their  Lord 
and  Master  they  made  themselves  of  "no  reputation." 
They  went  out  of  their  own  gates,  turning  their  backs 
on  the  universities  in  which  they  had  courted  letters; 
on  the  pulpits  in  which  they  had  preached  righteous- 
ness; on  the  homes  in  which  their  affections  had  nes- 
tled; expatriated  themselves  in  a  strange  land;  braved 
the  terrors  of  the  Western  Ocean,  the  cold  of  an  un- 
known sky,  the  solitude  of  an  unexplored  wilderness, 
cut  the  last  link  which  bound  them  to  the  civilized 
world,  and  were  alone  with  the  stars  and  with  God. 
They  staggered  in  the  faintness  of  famine;  with  their 
own  hands  they  dug  the  graves  of  wife  and  child ;  when 
half  were  buried,  they  knew  not  but  that  all  would  die 
before  the  return  of  the  bird-singing,  and  the  whole 
might  die  and  not  be  missed  by  the  world  they  had  left ; 
notwithstanding  all  which,  such  was  their  faith  in  the 
justice  of  God,  that  they  who  survived  were  sure, 
though  the  stars  over  their  heads  should  fall,  and  the 
pillars  of  heaven  should  tremble,  the  truth  and  the  right 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  193 

would  triumph  at  the  last:  and  having  withstood  in 
the  evil  day,  they  planted  their  feet  firm  as  the  rock  on 
which  they  stood,  and  in  the  sublimest  of  all  heroism, 
resolved,  having  done  all  things  else,  to  stand.  How 
has  that  justice  been  vindicated!  Look  at  the  Puri- 
tans when  depressed  and  despised  under  the  Tudors 
and  Stuarts — the  persecuted  band  in  the  perils  of  their 
exodus  and  pilgrimage  in  the  wilderness,  and  you 
might  be  ready  to  scoff  at  the  folly  of  faith,  and  doubt 
the  justice  of  Heaven.  But  time  is  long,  and  God  is 
calm.  The  drama  is  not  yet  to  be  ended.  That  which 
once  was  a  reproach  is  in  honor  now,  as  if  the  Almightv 
were  emptying  his  affluence  to  vindicate  his  equity.  It 
has  its  schools  and  its  universities,  its  freedom  and  its 
laws,  its  spindles  and  its  ploughs,  its  steam-presses, 
steamships,  and  speech-lightning;  its  commerce  and  its 
navies;  a  world-continent,  with  room  enough  and  to 
spare ;  its  declarations  and  constitutions ;  its  millions  of 
men,  with  free  thought  and  free  speech,  and  where  is 
the  power  of  the  world  to-day?  Not  in  Venice,  nor 
Florence,  nor  Lisbon,  nor  Madrid,  but  with  those  who 
sneak  the  English  language,  freighted  as  it  is  with  all 
the  thoughts  and  voices  of  freedom. 

Behold  the  auspices  under  which  we  are  called  to 
frame  here  a  new  form  of  human  society. 

First  of  all  are  the  memories  of  ancestry,  and  the 
traditions  of  a  long  and  eventful  history.  From  the 
tone  of  contempt  which  has  been  affected  by  some,  it 
might  be  inferred  that  we  were  a  people  without  a 
rightful  ancestry,  unacknowledged  before  the  world, 
"disgraceful  foundlings,  blushing  at  the  bend  of  ille- 
gitimacy in  our  coat  armorial."  Can  any  thing  be 
more  absurd?  Can  any  inhabitant  of  the  British  isle 
boast  of  a  prouder  pedigree  than  we?  The  pride  of 
those  who  still  hold  the  ancestral  cliffs,  records  our 


194  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

consanguinity  in  every  blazon  of  their  honors.  The 
old  unconquered  British,  the  Saxon,  Rollo's  Scandi- 
navian blood,  are  ours.1  Our  bones  are  full  of  the 
memories  of  British  history.  The  blood  which  flows 
in  our  veins  is  the  same  which  once  warmed  the  brave 
hearts  now  sleeping  in  the  moss-grown  graves  of  Eng- 
land's martyrs.  If  there  be  any  virtue  in  historic  lin- 
eage, the  literature  and  life  of  England  are  ours;  nor 
can  any  man  between  Land's-End  and  the  Orkneys, 
possess  a  greater  claim  to  the  fame  of  one  jurist,  poet, 
philosopher,  or  defender  of  liberty  in  British  history, 
than  we  ourselves.  Does  the  act  of  transplanting  a 
tree  dispossess  it  of  any  of  the  layers  of  fibre  which 
form  its  substance? 

While  this  identity  of  history  and  language  exists, 
one  thing  is  to  be  named  wherein  we  stand  alone.  The 
circumstances  under  which  England  was  separated 
from  the  Roman  dynasty  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII, 
have  entailed  a  connection  between  Church  and  State 
which  has  embarrassed  her  secular  policy,  and  will  em- 
barrass it  for  a  long  time  to  come.  By  slow  degrees 
we  have  reached,  what  as  yet  no  other  nation  has  at- 
tained, the  entire  separation  of  Church  and  State,  with 
no  diminution,  but  an  increase  of  the  power  of  true 
religion.  Not  to  speak  of  politicians  who  have  had 
their  own  ends  in  view,  men  like  Hooker,  Stillingfleet, 
Burnet,  Warburton,  Paley,  Gladstone,  and  Chalmers, 
have  defended  the  alliance  of  ecclesiastical  and  secular 
politics,  on  different  grounds;  but  chiefly  because  of 
an  assumed  obligation  of  the  Government  to  provide 
for  the  highest  interest  of  the  people.  It  was  for  our 
land  to  solve  the  problem  at  which  piety  and  wisdom 
had  toiled  elsewhere  in  vain,  how  the  power  of  religion 
could  be  increased  over  a  people,  at  the  same  time  that 
1  James  H.  Hillhouse. 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  195 

it  borrowed  no  aid  nor  support  from  the  Civil  Gov- 
ernment. The  facts  of  the  last  census  will  be  a  cheer- 
ing voice  to  those  who  are  elsewhere  striving  for  the 
same  freedom.  England  tolerates  all  religions;  but 
toleration  is  an  odious  word.  While  one  form  of  reli- 
gion is  permitted,  another  is  established  by  law  and 
statute.  The  blaze  of  those  bonfires,  and  the  ringing 
of  those  bells  which  announced  the  national  joy  on  the 
repeal  of  the  test  and  corporation  acts,  have  scarcely 
yet  died  away.  But  this  was  but  a  partial  advance 
towards  that  liberty  which  we  had  attained  long  be- 
fore, and  the  presage  of  yet  other  advancements  which 
we  have  left  far  behind  us.  Some  of  the  best  men  in 
England  at  this  moment  are  debarred  from  their  just 
rights  at  the  universities  and  elsewhere,  because  con- 
science compels  them  to  dissent  from  the  established 
religion.  We  have  no  dissenters  in  America.  We 
boast  not  of  toleration,  but  of  universal  freedom  and 
equality.  The  truth  on  this  subject  was  not  reached 
all  at  once.  When  that  noble  man,  John  Robinson — 
fit  in  every  quality  of  learning,  prudence  and  piety,  to  be 
the  leader  of  the  brave  band  whose  deeds  we  celebrate 
— bade  them,  in  the  memorable  address  which  he  made 
to  them  on  the  eve  of  their  embarkation,  to  remember 
that  more  light  was  yet  to  break  out  of  God's  word, 
that  the  Reformation  was  not  yet  complete,  that  Luther 
and  Calvin  had  stopped  short  of  the  whole,  it  was  not 
of  any  occult  philosophy  hidden  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  new  Testament  of  which  he  spake;  undoubtedly  it 
was  of  this  very  thing,  the  relations  of  religion  to  the 
civil  power,  that  he  intended  to  be  understood.  Some 
glimpses  of  the  truth  on  this  subject  had  he,  and  be- 
fore God  and  his  elect  angels  he  charged  them  to  keep 
their  minds  open  to  receive  the  whole  when  it  should 
come.  Bv  little  and  little  did  it  come,  till  the  last  dis- 


196  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ability  was  removed,  and  legislation  utterly  ceased  from 
all  attempts  at  installing  one  form  of  religion  at  the 
expense  of  another ;  and  here  is  a  vast  continent,  where 
religion  now  asks  no  other  support  than  the  intelligent 
minds  and  warm  hearts  of  her  own  disciples.  This 
perfect  liberty  and  equality  for  all  forms  of  religious 
opinion  sometimes  brings  with  it,  of  course,  sentiments 
which  are  noxious.  But  there  can  be  no  true  freedom 
for  what  is  good,  except  there  be  freedom  likewise  for 
what  is  bad ;  and  where  is  the  bad  so  likely  to  be  neu- 
tralized and  counteracted,  as  where  running  waters 
meet  together  and  purify  themselves  by  a  gentle  effer- 
vescence of  contrary  qualities,  instead  of  stagnating  in 
a  feculent  pool,  where  no  breeze  or  current  disturbs 
the  slime  which  mantles  its  surface.  The  best  mode 
of  refuting  error  is  to  let  it  out  into  the  air.  Powder 
is  harmless  if  thrown  loosely  on  the  surface;  when 
rammed  hard  into  a  barrel  it  becomes  powerful  and 
perilous.  The  danger  is  not  so  much  from  what  is 
allowed  to  come  out  freely  from  men's  mouths,  as  from 
what  is  forced  down  into  their  silent  hearts ;  and  when 
any  government  has  succeeded  in  putting  pulpits  and 
presses  under  the  most  complete  censorship,  then  look 
out  for  explosions.  The  more  still  it  is  the  nearer  is  the 
tempest.  In  the  very  last  report  he  ever  made  to  his 
monarch,  Archbishop  Laud  declared  that  never  was 
there  a  church  or  kingdom  in  such  complete  and  quiet 
conformity ;  and  this  on  the  very  eve  of  the  storm  which 
drove  king  and  primate  before  it  as  the  whirlwind 
drives  the  chaff.  If  any  man  has  a  conceit  in  his  brain, 
let  him  preach  it  and  print  it.  If  the  snake  has  a  fang, 
thanks  to  Providence  it  has  a  rattle;  the  noise  of  its 
free  motion  renders  it  harmless.  Great  confidence  have 
we  in  the  common  sense  of  mankind  ;  greater  still  in  all 
truth,  which  never  vet  has  suffered  in  free  and  full  dis- 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  197 

cussion.  Weapons  which  seem  at  first  to  pierce  her 
through  and  through,  leave  her  spiritual  form  un- 
harmed. We  fear  at  first,  we  are  shocked  when  things 
false  and  irreverent  are  said  of  what  is  true  and  holy. 
For  their  own  sakes,  and  for  the  mischief  they  do  to  the 
unwary,  we  greatly  deplore  that  there  should  be  so 
many  vipers  brought  out  by  the  kindling  fires  of  free- 
dom ;  but  on  this  account  we  cannot  consent  to  put  out 
the  fires,  and  freeze  to  death  on  the  barbaric  island  of 
despotism.1  When  the  warm  sun  of  the  summer  is  up 
it  brings  all  unclean  and  creeping  things  to  life;  the 
grass  is  full  of  all  manner  of  vermin,  so  is  the  bark  of 
the  trees,  and  the  adder  crawls  out  to  bask  in  the  glow- 
ing heat;  but  whole  harvests  of  grain  are  overtopping 
and  concealing  the  mischief,  the  trees  are  growing  taller 
and  taller,  spreading  out  their  fruitful  boughs  wider 
and  wider ;  and  with  every  abatement  and  disadvantage 
which  can  be  conceived  of  by  those  who  are  the  most 
fearful  and  intolerant,  we  point  the  friends  of  freedom 
throughout  the  world  to  our  own  history  to  prove  that, 
where  liberty  is  greatest  its  evils  are  fewest ;  where  reli- 
gion is  altogether  unsupported  by  law,  it  is  supported 
most  and  best.  Men  of  progress  and  men  of  enter- 
prise are  here  its  decided  friends,  and  such  a  vast 
growth  of  hopes  gladdens  our  hearts  under  its  smiles, 
that  we  scarcely  think,  of  the  small  mischiefs  which  at- 
tend its  imperial  munificence. 

When  the  earth  was  depopulated  by  a  flood,  My- 
thology informs  us  that  Deucalion  was  directed  to  re- 
plenish it  by  casting  over  his  head  the  bones  of  his 
mother,  or,  in  less  poetic  phrase,  the  stones  of  the 
ground.  So  much  as  this  may  be  derived  from  the 

1  The    Author    has    allowed      ten  by  him   for  the  Christian 
himself  to  repeat  here  a  few      Review,  Jan.  1852. 
sentences  from  an  article  writ- 


198  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

fable — that  the  greatest  renovations  of  society  are  ac- 
complished by  going  back  to  simple  and  original  prin- 
ciples. That  which  was  our  origin  must  be  our  preser- 
vation ;  that  which  was  our  cradle  must  be  our  bulwark. 
Our  trust  for  the  future,  both  for  ourselves  and  for  the 
world,  under  God,  is  in  the  two  old-fashioned,  unpre- 
tending, unvarnished  things,  which  our  fathers  laid  as 
the  foundation  of  the  Republic,  a  SPELLING-BOOK  and 
the  BIBLE.  With  God's  blessing,  these  potent  agents 
will  accomplish  results  surpassing  poetic  fancy;  but  all 
the  wisdom  and  power  and  progress  of  the  world,  will 
never  make  a  safe,  happy  and  self-governed  freeman 
WITHOUT  them.  Let  intelligence  and  religion  go  hand 
in  hand,  and  every  peril  will  vanish  from  our  path. 
Letters  are  not  like  the  dragon's  teeth  of  Cadmus, 
which,  sown  on  the  earth,  spring  up  a  frightful  host  of 
armed  men;  they  are  the  manna  with  which  Heaven 
has  whitened  the  whole  surface  of  the  ground  around 
our  camp,  as  food  for  the  people.  We  cannot  reason 
with  a  man  who  questions  the  utility  of  a  free  Bible. 
The  absurd  pretensions  of  Oriental  barbarism  excite 
smiles,  rather  than  arguments.  A  little  bigotry  amuses 
us;  a  good  deal  disgusts  us;  but  when  it  is  excessive 
and  monstrous,  it  is  positively  ludicrous.  We  look  at 
it  as  upon  the  portentous  feats  of  a  harlequin,  wonder- 
ing what  in  the  world  he  will  do  next.  Fast  as  the 
forest  drops  before  the  march  of  civilization,  let  the 
school-house  and  the  church  go  up,  as  they  rose  in  all 
the  infant  settlements  of  New  England.  In  the  one, 
let  every  child  be  taught  to  spell  the  great  words,  God, 
man,  liberty  and  law;  and  in  the  other,  let  a  whole 
people  be  trained  in  that  religion  which,  lighting  up 
the  hopes  of  immortality,  is  the  blessing,  the  protection, 
the  ornament  of  time.  The  world  is  coming  to  us,  and 
so  it  is  that  we  are  acting  not  for  ourselves  only,  but 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  199 

for  the  world.  As  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  are  has- 
tening into  our  confederacy;  the  German  bringing  a 
language  laden  with  multifarious  learning;  the  French 
a  tongue  with  much  of  pure  science  and  every  thing 
besides;  as  dialects  yet  more  strange  begin  to  mingle 
with  our  speech ;  as  the  feet  of  our  children  are  already 
on  the  Pacific;  as  China  at  last  has  been  tapped  by  an 
emigration  foreshadowing  we  know  not  what,  and  the 
Jericho-walls  of  her  barbaric  exclusiveness  are  falling 
down  before  the  universal  Peripatetics  who  circumam- 
bulate them,  we  rejoice  in  this,  that  all  will  here  acquire 
a  language  which  just  now  is  the  only  one  in  all  the 
world  in  which  a  man  may  speak  out  an  honest  mind, 
blunt  and  bravely,  on  all  subjects,  the  language  of  com- 
mon sense,  of  liberty  and  of  religion.  Here  they  come 
in  contact  with  that  open  Book,  the  symbol  of  a  free 
Christianity,  which  inculcates  intelligence,  industry,  in- 
dependence, self-reliance,  republican  virtues,  as  they 
may  be  called ;  a  book,  whose  first  lesson,  by  awakening 
the  sense  of  individuality,  is,  that  under  God,  a  man 
may  do  more  for  himself  than  all  the  governments  and 
churches  of  the  world  can  do  for  him ;  and  which,  when 
independence  tends  to  excess  and  disintegration,  los- 
ing reverence  and  love,  interposes  a  social  law,  which 
forbids  self -absorption,  and  discloses  the  highest  good 
of  one  in  the  highest  prosperity  of  all. 

Next  to  an  extreme  individuality,  by  which  multi- 
tudes of  good  men  are  tempted  to  leave  politics  to  care 
for  themselves,  or  to  those  who  are  least  to  be  trusted, 
our  greatest  peril  springs  from  an  immense  prosperity 
stimulating  a  thirst  for  gain,  and  intruding  at  length 
its  golden  bribes  into  the  sanctities  of  public  legislation. 
As  he  who  ran  with  Atalanta  in  the  race  provided  him- 
self with  golden  balls,  by  which  to  turn  her  out  of  her 
straight  and  lawful  course;  so  our  only  danger  of  de- 


200  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

feat  in  the  nimble-footed  race  we  have  begun,  is  in 
being  diverted  by  sideway  prizes,  out  of  the  straight 
path  of  downright  honesty  and  virtue.  Against  for- 
eign assailants  we  might  arm  ourselves ;  but  what  shall 
save  us  from  corruption  at  the  heart,  save  the  self- 
preserving  salt  of  religion? 

While  the  statute  books  of  a  single  nation  form  an 
immense  library,  the  surpassing  wonder  is,  that  all  the 
legislation  of  God  for  the  world  should  be  contained 
in  one  small  book;  for  man  is  a  microcosm,  and  law 
for  one  is  law  for  the  universe.  Before  the  Christian 
era,  there  was  no  international  law  but  that  of  ambition 
and  strength.  It  was  on  the  mind  of  Grotius,  as  a 
jurist,  that  the  truth  first  dawned,  that  the  great  prin- 
ciples which  the  Christian  religion  has  prescribed  for 
the  conduct  of  individuals  have  an  equal  application  to 
nations ;  and  ever  since  we  have  been  gradually  nearing 
the  conviction,  yet  to  become  universal,  that  the  whole 
code  of  international  law  is  packed  away  in  that  brief 
formula  of  justice  and  love,  which  Christianity  has 
made  the  law  of  the  nursery — "Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  also  the  same  to 
them;"  the  poet's  dream  realized  in  a  sublime  fact — a 
fairy  tent,  folded  up  like  a  lady's  fan,  yet  spreading  out 
into  dimensions  sufficient  to  hold  all  the  armies  of  the 
world. 

When  Hercules  joined  battle  with  Achelous,  the 
latter  assumed  the  form  of  a  fierce  and  furious  bull, 
and  then  of  a  hissing  serpent;  but  the  former  retained 
his  simple  human  form;  and  with  naked  hand  encoun- 
tered the  monster.  The  struggle  is  not  yet  ended  be- 
tween good  and  evil.  Let  every  American  preserve 
unchanged  the  form  of  a  simple,  honest,  earnest  man- 
hood ;  with  the  love  of  liberty  and  of  God  in  his  heart ; 
the  law  of  truth  in  his  speech ;  the  light  of  intelligence 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  201 

in  his  eye,  and  the  bounty  of  goodness  in  his  hand,  and 
so  courageously  battle  against  all  the  violence,  and 
poison,  and  wrong  of  the  world.  God  prosper  the 
right!  And  when  the  victories  of  truth  and  freedom 
are  universal,  then  and  not  till  then  will  be  the  time  to 
write  the  eulogy  of  our  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

We  enter  upon  this  anniversary  beneath  wreaths  of 
cypress  and  not  of  laurel.1  Meet  is  it  that  the  voice  of 
festivity  should  be  hushed;  for  he  who  had  so  often 
been  with  us  on  these  occasions,  whose  sonorous  voice 
had  so  eloquently  celebrated  this  day  of  our  forefathers 
in  words  which  will  ever  adorn  our  national  literature, 
New  England's  greatest  son,  has  gone  from  private 
friendships  and  a  nation's  honors,  to  rest  in  that  Pilgrim 
dust  which  he  so  much  loved  and  honored.  While 
others  have  eulogized  his  learning  and  eloquence  as  a 
jurist,  his  greatness  as  a  statesman,  it  is  only  appro- 
priate to  this  occasion  for  me  to  say  that  he  was  the 
genuine  growth  of  our  own  soil,  and  the  peculiar  prod- 
uct of  our  own  institutions.  No  flags  floated  over 
baronial  halls  in  honor  of  his  birth;  no  fretted  ceiling 
and  storied  arch  of  universities  looked  down  upon  his 
education.  Springing  from  the  bosom  of  the  people, 
working  his  way  upward  by  his  own  spontaneous  and 
irrepressible  force,  he  could  not  have  been  what  he  was 
but  for  the  peculiar  influences  of  his  New  England 
home.  The  small,  low,  brown  house  of  a  plain  New 
Hampshire  farmer,  with  its  well-sweep  and  trees;  the 
patriotic  father  who  told  him  of  the  battles  of  the 
Revolution ;  the  pious  mother  who  taught  him  the  cate- 
chism and  the  Sabbath  hymns;  the  ploughed  field  and 
the  mown  meadow ;  the  trials  and  struggles  of  the  hon- 

1  Because  of  the  recent  de-      dispense     with     their     annual 
cease    of   Hon.    Daniel    Web-      dinner, 
ster  the  Society  had  voted  to 


202  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

est  poor;  the  winter  district-school;  the  snow  storm; 
the  aspirations  after  knowledge;  the  difficulties  in  meet- 
ing the  expenses  of  an  education ;  the  sympathy  of  lov- 
ing brothers;  the  affectionateness  of  humble  kindred; 
the  New  England  College ;  the  meeting-house ;  the  Sab- 
bath; Thanksgiving  Day;  in  a  word,  all  the  scenery 
and  institutions  of  his  native  land,  these  were  the  influ- 
ences which  lay  about  the  roots  of  his  character,  and 
made  him  what  he  was,  in  every  thought,  memory,  in- 
stinct and  sympathy,  thoroughly  American. 

And  he  has  gone!  We  have  laid  him  down  in  the 
spot  which  he  had  himself  chosen,  by  the  side  of  our 
forefathers,  and  within  sight  of  the  Rock  which  their 
feet  first  touched.  Should  the  time  ever  come  when 
the  memories  of  our  origin  and  our  history  should  fade 
into  dimness;  should  the  national  sentiment  grow  fee- 
ble at  the  heart;  should  there  be  found  one  among  us 
so  dead  to  all  patriotism  as  to  care  not  for  the  noble 
lessons  which  his  wisdom  gave  us,  him  will  we  lead  to 
that  simple  and  unpretending  tomb,  hard  by  the  shore 
which  first  welcomed  the  Pilgrims,  hoping  that  the 
name  and  memory  of  DANIEL  WEBSTER  will  rouse  his 
dormant  spirit,  even  as  the  bones  of  Elisha  imparted  a 
new  life  to  the  dead  man  who  was  let  down  into  his 
sepulchre. 


THE  CENTRAL  PRINCIPLE 

* 

MARK  HOPKINS,  D.D. 
'853 


MARK   HOPKINS 
(1802-1887.) 

THE  celebration  at  the  Church  of  the  Puritans  in  1853  was  ad- 
dressed by  that  master  among  teachers,  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins,  for 
thirty-six  years  president  of  Williams  College,  and  for  thirty 
years  the  strong  and  wise  head  of  the  American  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions.  Eminent  as  a  student,  thinker,  and  speaker,  he 
was  greatest  in  his  personal  influence  on  those  about  him. 
When  he  took  its  leadership,  Williams  was  still  a  small  institu- 
tion. Under  his  wise  and  self-denying  presidency,  it  became 
one  of  the  powerful  colleges  of  the  country.  Dr.  Hopkins  was 
a  native  of  Stockbridge.  He  graduated  from  Williams  in  1824, 
and  shortly  returned  to  it  as  a  tutor.  An  offer  of  the  chair  of 
philosophy  and  rhetoric  changed  his  arrangements  for  entering 
medical  practice  in  New  York,  and  made  Williamstown  his 
permanent  home.  Six  years  later,  at  thirty-four,  he  was 
elected  president.  Many  of  his  courses  of  lectures  were  pub- 
lished, receiving  wide  attention,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  a  forerunner  of  those  who  now  empha- 
size the  value  of  study  of  the  natural  sciences. 


ORATION 


THE  celebrations  and  amusements  of  a  people  indi- 
cate their  character.  A  populace,  such  as  des- 
potism and  superstition  produce  and  imply,  require  to 
be  amused  by  pageants,  and  processions,  and  sports, 
and  masquerades.  Giving  up  the  care  of  their  gov- 
ernment to  the  king,  and  of  their  salvation  to  the  priest, 
what  have  they  to  do  but  to  convert  their  holy-days 
into  holidays,  and  when  a  prescribed  formality  has  sat- 
isfied the  conscience,  to  follow  a  monkey,  or  a  tumbler, 
to  visit  the  cock-pit  or  the  gaming-table,  to  be  gay,  and, 
shall  I  say,  happy, — no,  not  happy — but  to  be  amused 
and  managed  like  grown-up  children.  To  such,  the 
idea  of  a  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  holy  rest,  is  inconceivable. 

A  people,  on  the  other  hand,  reflective,  self -governed, 
feeling  their  individual  and  immediate  responsibility  to 
God,  will  create  an  atmosphere  stifling  to  all  pageantry 
and  mummery.  They  will  keep  their  Sabbaths;  their 
festivities  will  be  irradiated  by  a  rational  joy,  and  their 
celebrations  and  holidays  will  not  be  without  something 
to  strengthen  principle,  and  nourish  the  affections. 
These  days  will  be  consecrated  to  the  progress  of  the 
peaceful  arts;  they  will  commemorate  the  bounties  of 
Providence,  the  struggles  and  triumphs  of  freedom,  the 
piety  and  heroism  of  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

Pilgrim  Fathers !  What  wealth  of  hallowed  associa- 
tions is  garnered  in  these  words!  By  what  others  in 

205 


206  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

the  English  language  should  we  prefer  to  designate  our 
ancestors  ? 

They  were  Pilgrims — and  such  Pilgrims.  They 
sought  no  shrine  already  hallowed.  Not  by  super- 
stition, or  fanaticism,  or  the  love  of  adventure,  or 
desire  for  gain,  singly  or  combined,  were  they  moved ; 
but,  like  Abraham,  they  went  out  in  the  grandeur  of 
simple  faith,  not  knowing  whither  they  went.  They 
went,  as  they  themselves  say,  "with  the  great  hope  and 
inward  seal  they  had  of  laying  some  good  foundation 
for  the  propagating  and  advancing  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  in  these  remote  parts  of  the  world."  * 

That  the  object  assigned  by  them  was  their  great 
object,  God  has  been  careful  to  make  evident,  not  from 
testimony  alone,  but  precisely  as  he  did  in  the  case  of 
the  Apostles  and  first  Christians.  So  close  indeed  is 
the  parallel,  in  circumstances,  in  character,  and  in  re- 
sults, that  the  same  language  will  apply  to  both. 

It  was  only  through  long  inward  struggles,  and 
searchings  of  the  Scriptures,  and  much  prayer,  that 
both  were  brought  to  separate  themselves  from  a 
Church  in  which  they  were  born,  but  which  had  sub- 
stituted the  traditions  of  man  for  the  word  of  God,  and 
the  forms  of  religion  instead  of  its  spirit.  And  in 
making  this  separation,  the  temper  and  sincerity  of 
both  were  tried  to  the  utmost.  Both  were  forbidden  to 
preach  or  to  teach  under  heavy  penalties,  were  impris- 
oned, deprived  of  their  property,  put  to  death,  driven 
from  their  country  and  scattered  abroad  by  persecution. 
Both  were  placed  socially  under  ban,  and  utterly  scorned 
by  all  that  passed  for  refinement  in  their  day — were  re- 
garded as  "the  filth  of  the  earth,  and  the  off-scouring  of 
all  things."  Against  both,  Providence  itself  and  the 
very  elements  sometimes  seemed  to  conspire,  as  when 
1  Young's  Chronicles. 


MARK  HOPKINS  207 

Paul  was  imprisoned  for  years,  and  was  shipwrecked, 
and  was  a  night  and  a  day  in  the  deep;  and  when  the 
Pilgrims  attempted  to  leave  England,  and  the  enemy 
came  upon  them  and  divided  their  families,  and  the 
storm  arose. 

But  in  these  trials  they  were  alike  patient  and  confi- 
dent in  God.  Paul  could  say,  "I  know  whom  I  have 
believed."  John  Penry  could  say  just  before  his  mar- 
tyrdom, "I  testify  unto  you  for  mine  own  part,  as  I 
shall  answer  it  before  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  elect  angels, 
that  I  never  saw  any  truth  more  clear  and  more  un- 
doubted than  this  witness  wherein  we  stand."  Paul 
could  say,  "I  am  ready  to  be  offered."  Penry  could 
say,  "And  I  thank  my  God,  I  am  not  only  ready  to  be 
bound  and  banished,  but  even  to  die  for  this  cause,  by 
his  strength."  Paul  could  say,  "I  am  in  a  strait  be- 
twixt two,  having  a  desire  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ, 
which  is  far  better" — but  added — "Nevertheless,  to 
abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for  you."  Penry 
could  say,  "I  greatly  long,  in  regard  of  myself,  to  be 
dissolved  and  to  live  in  the  blessed  kingdom  of  heaven 
with  Jesus  Christ  and  his  angels."  And  he  too  could 
add,  "I  would  indeed,  if  it  be  his  good  pleasure,  live  yet 
with  you  to  help  you  bear  that  grievous  and  hard  yoke 
which  ye  are  like  to  sustain,  either  here  or  in  a  strange 
land."  And  if  the  Apostle  had  had  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren, he  could  hardly  have  committed  them  with 
stronger  faith  to  exile  and  the  promises.  "And  here," 
says  Penry,  "I  humbly  beseech  you,  not  in  any  outward 
regard,  as  I  shall  answer  it  before  my  God,  that  you 
would  take  my  poor  and  desolate  widow,  and  mess  of 
fatherless  and  friendless  orphans,  with  you  into  exile 
whithersoever  you  may  go,  and  you  shall  find,  I  doubt 
not,  that  the  blessed  promises  of  my  God  made  to  me 
and  mine  will  accompany  you.  .  .  .  Only  I  be- 


208  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

seech  you,  let  them  not  continue  after  you  in  this  land, 
where  they  must  be  forced  to  go  again  into  Egypt." 

Such  was  their  spirit.  Persons  of  all  conditions  and 
of  all  ages  were  thus  sustained  through  years  of  desti- 
tution and  suffering.  Some  dying  in  prison,  as  Neale 
says,  "like  rotten  sheep,"  and  some  enduring  the  perils 
and  hardships  of  the  wilderness;  but  all  cheerful  and 
confident  in  God. 

Nor  were  these  persons,  as  a  body,  more  than  the 
early  Christians,  narrow,  or  bigoted,  or  sour,  or  fanat- 
ical, or  turbulent,  or  seekers  of  novelties.  Says  Rob- 
inson :  "As  they  that  affect  alienation  from  others  make 
their  differences  as  great,  and  the  adverse  opinion  or 
practice  as  odious  as  they  can,  thereby  to  further  their 
desired  victory  over  them,  and  to  harden  themselves  and 
their  side  against  them,  so,  on  the  contrary,  they  who 
desire  peace  and  accord,  both  interpret  things  in  the 
best  part  they  reasonably  can,  and  seek  how  and  where 
they  may  find  any  lawful  door  of  entry  into  accord  and 
agreement  with  others :  of  which  latter  number  I  pro- 
fess myself,  by  the  grace  of  God,  both  a  companion  and 
a  guide,  especially  in  regard  of  my  Christian  country- 
men .  .  .  accounting  it  a  cross  that  I  am  com- 
pelled, in  any  particular,  to  dissent  from  them,  but  a 
benefit  and  matter  of  rejoicing  when  I  can  in  any  thing, 
with  good  conscience,  unite  with  them  in  matter,  if  not 
in  manner,  or,  where  it  may  be,  in  both."  J  "We  up- 
hold," says  he,  "whatsoever  manifest  good  we  know  in 
the  Church  of  England,  whether  doctrine,  ordinance, 
or  personal  grace,  to  our  utmost.  We  do  acknowledge 
in  it  many  excellent  truths  of  doctrine  which  we  also 
teach  without  commixture  of  error;  many  Christian 
ordinances  which  we  also  practice — being  purged  from 
the  pollution  of  Anti-Christ — and  for  the  godly  per- 
1  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  354. 


MARK  HOPKINS  209 

sons  in  it,  could  we  possibly  separate  them  from  the 
profane,  we  would  gladly  embrace  them  with  both 
arms."  l  How  noble  this  in  a  persecuted  and  exiled 
man!  So  far  were  they  from  seeking  novelties,  that 
he  says:  "But  we,  for  our  parts,  as  we  do  believe,  by 
the  word  of  God,  that  the  things  that  we  teach  are  not 
new,  but  old  truths  renewed,  so  are  we  no  less  fully  per- 
suaded that  the  church  constitution  in  which  we  are 
set  is  cast  in  the  apostolic  and  primitive  mould,  and  not 
one  day  nor  hour  younger,  in  the  nature  and  form  of  it, 
than  the  first  Church  of  the  New  Testament."  2 

Our  fathers  had  no  "mad  rage"  against  what  Hume 
calls  "inoffensive  observances,  surplices,  corner-caps 
and  tippets."  s  They  contended  for  a  great  principle, 
precisely  as  Paul  did.  As  a  matter  of  expediency,  Paul 
took  Timothy  and  circumcised  him.  He  cared  nothing 
about  circumcision  one  way  or  the  other,  but  when  it 
was  attempted  to  impose  circumcision  as  binding,  and 
the  great  principle  of  religious  liberty  was  at  stake,  he 
"gave  subjection  to  them,  no,  not  for  an  hour."  He 
was  then  as  precise  as  any  Puritan  ever  was,  and  would 
have  gone  to  prison  and  to  death  for  a  thing  indifferent 
in  itself,  just  as  the  Puritans  did.  When  a  great  prin- 
ciple is  in  question,  it  matters  little  what  brings  the 
conflict  on.  It  may  be  a  sixpenny  tax,  or  a  pound  of 
tea,  or  a  tippet,  or  a  surplice.  No  body  cares  any  thing 
about  the  tea  or  the  tippet;  but  we  thank  God  that 
there  have  been  men  who  would  set  a  continent  on  fire, 
and  spend  millions  of  money,  and  lay  down  their  lives, 
rather  than  pay  that  sixpenny  tax  when  its  payment 
would  have  conceded  the  right  to  exact  it;  and  we 
thank  God  that  there  have  been  men  who,  rather  than 

1  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  14.  Principles,    by    Dr.    Hall,    Int. 

*  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  43.  Lect. 

'  See  the  Puritans  and  their 


210  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

wear  a  tippet  or  surplice,  when  to  have  done  so  would 
have  compromised  the  great  principle  of  religious  lib- 
erty, would  go  to  prison  and  to  death. 

But  those  who  urge  that  the  Puritans  were  over-scru- 
pulous, may  not  perceive  that  that  is  a  two-edged 
sword ;  for  if  the  points  were  thus  indifferent,  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  intense  bigotry  and  narrowness  of  those 
who,  for  want  of  conformity  in  things  indifferent,  could 
turn  two  thousand  ministers  from  their  pulpits,  and  im- 
prison men,  and  put  them  to  death?  No,  both  parties 
understood  well  what  they  were  contending  for,  and  if 
the  Puritans  had  submitted  to  the  imposition  of  tippets 
and  surplices,  this  continent  would  have  had  another 
history. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say,  that  the  seal  of  God  in  the 
success  and  moral  glory  that  have  crowned  their  enter- 
prise has  not  been  less  unequivocal  in  the  case  of  our 
fathers  than  in  that  of  the  early  Christians.  In  each 
case  there  was  but  "a  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth,  and 
God  made  the  fruit  thereof  to  shake  as  Lebanon." 
The  sun  does  not  look  down  upon  better  results  of  a 
pure  Christianity  in  families,  in  churches,  in  schools 
and  colleges,  in  missions,  and  in  civil  freedom,  than  can 
be  traced  directly  and  wholly  to  their  sufferings  and 
labors.  If  we  consider  their  feeble  beginnings,  and  the 
obstacles  they  had  to  encounter,  the  world  has  seen 
nothing  like  it. 

Nor  is  it  in  this  country  alone  that  the  fruits  of  their 
principles  are  seen.  The  civil  liberty  of  England  was 
from  them  alone.  Not  to  mention  the  explicit  passage 
so  often  quoted  from  Hume,  Lord  King  says :  "As  for 
toleration,  or  any  true  notion  of  religious  liberty,  or  any 
general  freedom  of  conscience,  we  owe  them  not  in  the 
least  degree  to  what  is  called  the  Church  of  England. 
On  the  contrary,  we  owe  all  these  to  the  Independents 


MARK  HOPKINS  211 

in  the  time  of  the  commonwealth,  and  to  Locke,  their 
most  illustrious  and  enlightened  disciple."  "I  fear- 
lessly confess  it,"  says  Lord  Brougham,  as  if  it  re- 
quired even  yet  no  little  courage  to  speak  the  truth  of 
the  Puritans,  "with  whatever  ridicule  some  may  visit 
their  excesses,  or  with  whatever  blame  others,  they, 
with  the  zeal  of  martyrs,  and  the  purity  of  early  Chris- 
tians, the  skill  and  courage  of  the  most  renowned  war- 
riors, obtained  for  England  the  free  constitution  she 
enjoys."  * 

If,  then,  we  except  miracles,  what  seal  which  God  set 
upon  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  the  early  Christians 
has  he  withheld  from  those  of  our  fathers?  We  claim 
for  them  no  perfection,  but  we  see  in  them  serious,  ear- 
nest, prayerful,  intelligent,  self-denying  Christians,  wit- 
nesses for  God,  and  on  the  whole,  the  best  representa- 
tives and  truest  successors  of  the  Apostles  and  early 
Christians  then  on  the  earth.  We  even  venture  to 
question  whether  John  Penry,  a  minister  regularly  or- 
dained, with  so  many  points  of  resemblance  to  the 
Apostle  Paul,  and  like  him  laying  down  his  life  for  the 
cause  of  Christ,  was  not  quite  as  much  in  the  true  line 
of  apostolical  succession  as  the  Archbishop  who  signed 
his  death-warrant. 

Our  fathers,  then,  in  coming  to  this  country,  were 
pilgrims  of  the  highest  order;  not  simply  wanderers, 
but  wanderers  as  Abraham  was,  because  they  too 
"sought  a  city  that  hath  foundations."  As  such  we 
venerate  them.  We  rejoice  at  the  incorporation  into 
their  designation  of  a  term  which  also  designates  the 
sublimest  feature  of  human  existence,  and  which  should 
teach  us  and  each  of  their  descendants  to  say,  "I  am  a 
pilgrim,  and  I  am  a  stranger  on  the  earth." 

And  the  Pilgrims  were  also  Fathers.  Far  beyond 
1  The  Puritans  and  their  Principles,  Int.  Lect. 


212  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

any  other  founders  of  states  does  this  title  belong  to 
them.  Their  purpose  was  to  lay  foundations.  They 
brought  their  families  with  them.  They  had  tender- 
ness, and  forethought,  and  self-denying  labor,  and 
prayerful  anxiety.  No  characteristic  was  wanting  that 
could  entitle  them  to  that  tender  and  venerable  name. 

They  were  Pilgrims,  and  they  were  Fathers;  trav- 
ellers towards  a  better  country,  that  is,  an  heavenly; 
and  the  fathers  and  founders  of  a  mighty  empire  on  the 
earth. 

As  Pilgrim  Fathers,  their  immediate  gift  to  the 
world  was  New-England.  From  them  and  their  insti- 
tutions, in  connection  with  their  maritime  position,  and 
the  climate  and  soil  and  scenery  of  the  country,  has 
originated  the  general  type  of  character  which  belongs 
to  her  people.  These  institutions,  this  general  type  of 
character,  we  accept  as  ours,  and  rejoice  in  them.  In 
the  light  of  history,  which  shows  the  tendency  of  the 
sterner  and  the  more  hardy  virtues  to  deteriorate  where 
the  soil  is  fertile  and  the  climate  genial,  we  are  thank- 
ful that  our  fathers  were  directed  to  a  land  that  necessi- 
tated industry  and  frugality,  and  stimulated  enterprise 
and  invention;  fitted,  much  of  it,  as  has  been  said,  to 
produce  nothing  but  ice  and  granite. 

This  land  we  love.  We  love  her  scenery,  her  green 
mountains,  her  transparent  streams,  her  long  summer 
days,  her  gorgeous  autumns,  her  clear,  sharp,  frosty 
mornings,  her  winter  evenings,  her  tasteful  and  thriv- 
ing villages,  her  district  school-houses,  her  frequent 
spires,  and  her  quiet  Sabbaths.  We  glory  in  her  peo- 
ple; in  their  system  of  free  schools,  in  their  general 
intelligence  and  shrewd  practical  sense,  in  their  inven- 
tions, their  economy  that  saves  to  give,  their  true- 
hearted  kindness,  their  enlarged  and  far-seeing  benevo- 
lence, their  care  for  the  insane  and  the  deaf  and  dumb 


MARK  HOPKINS  213 

and  blind,  in  their  religious  missions  that  circle  the 
globe,  in  their  love  of  a  rational  liberty,  and  in  their 
general  reverence  for  the  law  under  its  simplest  forms. 

Nor  are  we  over  sensitive  to  the  provincialisms  and 
uncouthnesses  of  here  and  there  a  "live"  and  unmiti- 
gated Yankee,  though  he  may  flatten  the  on,  and  whit- 
tle, and  ask  questions,  and  boast  absurdly.  Others 
smack  of  the  soil  they  grew  in  as  strongly  as  he.  If 
he  do  whittle,  he  will  commonly  whittle  his  way;  his 
questions  are  apt  to  be  to  the  point;  and  if  he  boasts 
that  he  is  going  to  "cut  all  creation  out,"  who  more 
likely  to  do  it? 

If,  then,  the  Fathers  had  simply  given  the  world 
New-England,  it  might  have  been  well  for  her  sons  to 
associate  themselves,  as  do  others,  to  cherish  local  asso- 
ciations and  family  traits,  and  to  keep  alive  that  home- 
feeling,  which  is  an  ornament  and  a  pleasure  to  the  indi- 
vidual, while  it  narrows  neither  his  vision  nor  his  heart 
to  the  perception  or  love  of  all  that  is  peculiar  and  good 
in  other  forms  of  society. 

But  if  this  had  been  all,  this  day  had  not  been  cele- 
brated as  it  has  been,  with  persistency  and  enthusiasm, 
from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  We 
do  not  honor  the  Pilgrims  simply  as  the  Fathers  of 
New-England,  but  because  they  were  the  depositories 
and  best  representatives  then  on  the  earth  of  the  one 
central  principle  on  which  the  hopes  of  the  race  rest, 
the  progress  of  which  measures  the  world's  progress, 
and  gives  unity  to  its  history. 

Here  a  wide  field  at  once  opens  before  us,  but  the 
time  will  permit  us  only  to  inquire — 

ist.  Whether  there  be  such  a  principle  of  unity. 

2d.  What  it  is;  and 

3d.  Whether  its  ascendency  would  secure  to  society 
all  that  is  desirable. 


214  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Is  there,  then,  indeed,  the  unity  just  spoken  of  in  the 
history  of  this  world?  Is  there  any  one  central  prin- 
ciple from  their  relation  to  which  the  early  dispersion  of 
families,  the  settlement  of  continents,  the  rise  and  fall 
of  kingdoms,  the  waxing  and  waning  of  civilizations, 
and  the  transfer  of  the  seats  of  empire  have  derived 
their  chief  significancy?  Have  they  been  parts  of  a 
great  whole,  subservient  to  some  one  end? 

That  they  have  we  can  not  doubt,  though  we  may  be 
unable  to  see  the  connection  with  it  of  remote,  and 
decayed,  and  lost  races.  The  early  limbs  of  the  pine 
perish,  and  leave  no  trace  on  the  smooth  shaft  when 
centuries  have  gone  by,  and  it  lifts  itself  a  hundred  feet 
into  the  air;  but  doubtless  they  contribute  to  make  it 
what  it  is.  Such  a  unity  we  can  trace  in  all  the  fixed 
combinations,  and  circular  and  improgressive  move- 
ments of  the  works  of  God.  These  have  evident  refer- 
ence to  an  end  beyond  themselves,  as  the  loom  with  its 
recurring  movement  to  the  pattern  it  finishes  and  passes 
on.  The  earth  stands  now,  and  the  seasons  revolve, 
and  day  and  night  succeed  each  other  as  they  did  six 
thousand  years  ago.  The  force  of  gravitation,  the 
light  of  the  sun,  the  capacity  of  the  earth  and  air,  of  fire 
and  water,  to  minister  to  vegetable  and  animal  life,  are 
the  same  now  as  then.  These  fixed  combinations  and 
recurring  movements  are  subservient  to  vegetable  and 
animal  life.  Moreover,  in  every  individual  plant,  and 
in  every  animal,  are  parts  that  minister  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  whole,  and  then  that  whole  thus  minis- 
tered unto,  offers  itself  to  minister  to  somewhat  higher, 
till  we  reach  man,  who  takes  up  into  himself  every  fac- 
ulty and  law  in  all  below  him,  thus  crowning  the  whole, 
and  showing  that  it  is  in  subserviency  to  his  well-being 
that  it  all  finds  its  unity.  How  beautiful  and  grand  this 
permanent  order  and  subserviency,  this  circling  of  day 


MARK  HOPKINS  215 

and  night,  and  of  the  seasons,  and  this  ministration 
from  age  to  age  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  to  the 
successive  generations  of  men ! 

And  is  there  a  unity  so  vast  and  perfect  in  this  fixed 
and  improgressive  order  of  things,  that  is  but  secon- 
dary, and  shall  there  be  none  in  the  flow  of  time,  in  the 
succession  of  the  generations,  in  the  onward  sweep  and 
termination  of  the  great  current  of  providential  move- 
ments? Shall  there  be  no  thought  or  purpose,  or  in- 
forming idea  of  God,  giving  its  unity  to  this  vast  on- 
ward movement,  and  which  is  ultimately  to  protrude 
itself  as  the  blossom  from  the  stem,  and  then  be  recog- 
nized as  the  end  toward  which  every  secret  process 
and  the  slow  changes  of  the  ages  had  been  tending? 
We  believe  there  is  such  a  central  idea — it  is  the  teach- 
ing both  of  Scripture  and  of  reason — and  if  so,  then  in 
'hat,  and  in  that  alone,  will  be  found  the  key  to  all 
history ;  and  from  their  relation  to  that,  the  significancy 
and  grandeur  of  events,  however  splendid  or  humble 
in  their  outward  aspect,  will  be  estimated. 

We  next  inquire  then,  what  that  principle  is?  It 
can  not  be  the  religious  freedom  so  often  spoken  of  in 
connection  with  the  Pilgrims;  for  that  may  be  where 
there  is  no  religion,  but  in  its  stead  indifference  and  in- 
fidelity. Such  a  freedom  could  avail  little.  That  which 
is  to  bless  the  world  is  not  mere  freedom  of  any  kind, 
but  true  religion  putting  itself  forth  in  freedom,  and 
vindicating,  in  the  name  of  God,  all  the  rights  and 
means  necessary  to  its  full  expansion.  The  central  pur- 
pose and  principle  in  the  onward  movement  of  this 
world  we  suppose  then  to  be,  the  vital  union  of  man 
with  God  in  moral  conformity  to  him,  and  so  in  prepa- 
ration for  an  eternal  life.  So  only  do  we  find  an  ex- 
tension of  the  unity  and  subserviency  we  see  in  all 
things,  by  linking  earth  and  time  to  heaven  and  an  eter- 


216  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

nal  progression.  This  is  the  principle — for  this  the 
world  stands;  but  for  this,  religious  freedom  will  be 
needed,  and  the  demand  for  that  will  bring  men  into 
such  relations  to  human  governments  that  that  will  be 
the  thing  immediately  contended  for — the  point  around 
which  the  conflict  will  be  waged.  It  has  been  no  love 
for  freedom  in  the  abstract,  but  of  freedom  for  the  sake 
of  religion  that  has  walked  in  the  fiery  furnace,  and 
gone  into  the  lion's  den,  and  said  to  rulers,  "We  ought 
to  obey  God  rather  than  men,"  and  so  has  drawn  on 
and  sustained  a  resistance  to  oppression  that  has  been 
the  basis  of  all  the  civil  freedom  now  in  the  world. 
All  other  freedoms  have  died  out,  and  will  die.  This 
alone  has  the  sap  of  an  immortal  life. 

The  object  of  religion  must  be  the  free  expansion  and 
perfecting  of  that  in  man  by  which  he  is  capable  of  re- 
ligion. If,  then,  the  religious  nature  be  central  in  man, 
it  must  be  that  for  which  all  things  are  preparing  a 
final  expansion  and  appropriate  sphere. 

That  this  is  so  appears  because  the  religious  nature  is 
that  which  is  central  in  the  unity  of  the  individual  man. 
Each  man  has  in  himself  a  unity  no  less  than  nature 
and  the  whole  onward  scheme  of  things,  and  the  one  is 
analogous  to  the  other.  In  the  powers  that  upbuild 
and  sustain  the  body,  as  those  of  nutrition  and  circu- 
lation, man  has  a  circular  and  improgressive  system, 
that  goes  on  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  life 
of  the  individual — as  the  movements  causing  day  and 
night,  and  the  seasons  go  on  in  nature  till  the  end  of 
the  life  of  the  race;  and  this  improgressive  system  in 
each  man  is  to  the  unfolding  and  progressive  life  of  his 
mind  what  the  movements  of  nature  are  to  the  unfold- 
ing and  progressive  life  of  the  race.  This  system  is 
for  the  sake  of  the  intellect  with  its  perceptions  and  de- 
ductions ;  and  this  again  for  the  emotions,  as  of  beauty 


MARK  HOPKINS  217 

and  sublimity  when  we  regard  things,  and  of  compla- 
cency and  love  when  we  regard  persons.  But  of  the 
emotions,  the  highest  are  those  which  are  involved  in 
the  love  of  man,  and  in  worship — in  the  love  and  wor- 
ship of  the  Infinite  One ;  and  thus  that  love  of  God  and 
of  man,  in  which  the  Bible  declares  true  religion  to 
consist,  is  precisely  that  the  capacity  for  which  philoso- 
phy will  show  lies  deepest  in  our  nature,  and  gives  it 
its  unity.  It  is  the  central  blossom,  as  in  the  palm 
tree,  without  the  expansion  of  which  no  individual 
reaches  his  full  development.  But  what  is  thus  true  of 
the  individual,  must  be  true  of  the  race. 

It  may  be  observed,  too,  that  as  the  natural  order  of 
the  growth  of  the  individual  is,  first  the  physical  pow- 
ers, then  the  intellect,  and  then  the  religious  nature;  so 
in  the  history  of  the  world  there  has  been,  first,  the 
ascendency  of  physical  prowess,  then  of  intellect;  and 
that  now,  when  the  whole  world  is  known,  and  com- 
merce and  science  are  bringing  all  parts  of  it  together, 
religion  is  casting  the  eye  of  faith  over  it  all  and  pre- 
paring for  its  conquest.  That  the  religious  element  is 
central,  appears  also  from  the  necessity  of  a  true  reli- 
gion to  any  permanent  progress  or  elevation  of  the 
race.  How  can  man  be  elevated  except  as  there  is 
that  above  him  of  which  he  may  lay  hold,  and  with 
which  he  may  commune  ?  We  must  be  gradually  trans- 
formed into  the  likeness  of  that  with  which  we  com- 
mune voluntarily  and  with  pleasure,  and  whoever 
reaches  a  point  where  he  supposes  there  is  nothing,  or 
communes  with  nothing  higher  and  better  than  him- 
self, has  reached  a  point  where  all  elevation  must  cease. 
Hence  a  man  can  do  nothing  so  fatal  to  the  best  hopes  of 
the  race  as  to  lower  the  character  of  God,  or  to  weaken 
the  impression  it  is  adapted  to  make  on  the  minds  of 
men.  No  heathen  nation  can  make  permanent  progress. 


2i8  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

The  same  thing  appears  from  the  absurdities  which 
men  have  received,  and  the  impositions  to  which  they 
have  submitted  in  connection  with  religion.  You  may 
connect  a  heavy  burden  with  the  child  on  the  back  of 
the  Indian  mother,  and  she  will  bear  it  if  you  can  make 
her  believe,  either  that  it  is  only  the  weight  of  the  child, 
or  that  they  are  so  inseparably  connected  that  if  she 
would  get  loose  from  the  one  she  must  abandon  the 
other.  How  else  but  by  connecting  them  with  that 
which  is  deepest  and  dearest,  could  men  have  been  made 
to  submit  to  the  absurdities  and  impositions  of  Brah- 
minism  and  of  Popery? 

Again,  as  has  been  said,  it  is  only  through  this  that 
this  world  can  become  a  part  in  the  unity  of  one  great 
moral  system,  the  existence  of  which  is  indicated  by 
analogy,  and  confirmed  by  Scripture,  and  to  which  the 
vast  physical  universe  revealed  by  the  telescope  must 
be  wholly  subordinate. 

Once  more,  if  we  search  history  for  the  cause  of  the 
most  earnest  and  pervading  movements  in  the  past,  we 
shall  come  to  the  same  conclusion.  From  religion  in- 
deed has  proceeded  the  only  movement  that  has  been 
continuous  from  the  beginning.  What  but  the  religious 
element  could  have  kept  the  Jews  a  distinct  people  for 
4000  years?  What  else  could  have  caused  the  Chris- 
tian movement?  Think  as  we  may  of  the  religion,  the 
amount  of  thought  and  labor,  and  of  expenditure,  both 
of  money  and  of  life,  that  have  sprung  from  it,  the 
revolutions  it  has  wrought,  not  only  in  religion,  but  in 
philosophies,  in  art,  in  government,  in  social  life  and 
the  forms  of  civilization,  and  that  too  in  spite  of  the 
fiercest  opposition,  show  the  power  of  an  element  like 
one  of  the  great  forces  of  nature,  that  "spreads  undi- 
vided, operates  unspent."  What  but  this  could  have 
produced  the  Mohammedan  movement,  so  volcanic,  re- 


MARK  HOPKINS  219 

sistless  and  persistent  ?  To  this  day  it  is  not  spent,  but 
still  stands  so  sturdily  and  glares  so  fiercely  on  all 
who  would  attack  it,  that  Christian  missionaries  turn 
aside  to  more  hopeful  fields.  In  the  present  war  be- 
tween Turkey  and  Russia,  we  all  know  what  will  infuse 
into  the  conflict  its  fiercest,  most  destructive  and  un- 
manageable elements.  Through  what  slumbering  ele- 
ment but  this  could  all  Europe  have  been  precipitated 
in  the  crusades,  like  a  fiery  flood  upon  Asia?  What  else 
could  have  produced  the  intense  movement  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, and  drawn  the  sharp  lines  of  division  that 
have  sprung  from  it  ?  These  are  the  great  movements 
of  the  race — the  continents  in  the  sea  of  history,  em- 
bosoming the  lesser  movements  which  spring  from 
divisions  into  races,  and  the  love  of  conquest,  and  per- 
sonal and  family  ambition. 

Nor  has  the  influence  of  the  religious  principle  been 
less  where  it  has  not  been  ostensibly  the  dominant  ele- 
ment. By  all  lawgivers  and  despots,  whose  immediate 
object  has  been  power,  religion  has  been  so  incorpo- 
rated into  the  state  as  to  be  subservient  to  the  purposes 
of  ambition,  and  has  really  been  the  cement  of  all  en- 
during despotisms.  It  has  been  the  art  of  king-craft 
and  of  priestcraft  to  identify  the  interests  of  the  clergy 
with  those  of  the  ruling  powers,  and  so  to  train  the  reli- 
gious sentiment  as  to  make  the  support  of  despotism 
obedience  to  God.  Hence,  James  of  England,  though 
he  had  in  Scotland  professed  himself  a  Presbyterian, 
said  he  hated  the  Independents  worse  than  he  did  the 
Catholics.  Hence  the  affinity  of  every  reactionary  and 
monarchical  government  in  France  for  the  Jesuits,  and 
the  fact  that  Protestantism  has  been  uniformly  perse- 
cuted there.  It  is  felt  that  the  religious  liberty  which  it 
implies  and  cherishes,  especially  in  searching  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  thought  which  it  requires,  the  direct  respon- 


220  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

sibility  to  God  which  it  teaches,  and  the  power  of  a  free 
conscience  which  it  educates,  are  antagonistic  to  the 
spirit  of  despotism.  And  so  they  are.  Religious  free- 
dom would  fit  men  for  civil  freedom,  and  eventuate  in 
that. 

And  here  I  may  remark,  that  it  is  this  want  of  con- 
gruity  between  Protestantism  in  its  true  spirit  and  the 
forms  of  government  in  Europe  that,  more  than  all 
other  causes,  has  prevented  its  more  rapid  and  wider 
spread  there,  and  that  has  enabled  the  Pope  to  recover 
regions  once  lost.  The  rulers  have  not  heartily  sec- 
onded its  efforts;  they  have  feared  it,  and  do  now. 
They  watched  its  first  risings;  they  counter-work  and 
stamp  it  out  as  they  would  fire.  It  is  the  presence  of 
this  in  Turkey  that  Nicholas  fears,  and  its  suppression 
has  more  to  do  with  the  politics  of  Europe  than  ap- 
pears on  the  surface. 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  even  where  place  and 
power  have  been  primarily  sought,  the  controlling  ele- 
ment has  still  been  the  religious  one.  This  philoso- 
phers and  statesmen  have  sometimes  scorned  as  a  weak- 
ness and  superstition,  but  they  have  never  been  able  to 
disregard  it  with  impunity,  and  often  they  have  been 
astonished  and  baffled  by  its  flaming  up  where  they 
least  expected  it. 

Now  it  was  the  growth  of  this  in  freedom,  that  was 
the  great  idea  or  principle  that  was  in  our  fathers,  and 
wrought  in  them,  and  has  come  down  through  them  to 
us.  We  are  not  of  those  who  disclaim  antiquity  and 
discard  transmission  and  succession,  and  fail  to  connect 
ourselves  with  a  vital  and  organized  past.  If  we  be- 
lieve less  than  some  in  the  regular  succession  of  the 
Popes,  and  in  the  transmission  for  eighteen  hundred 
years,  often  through  murderous  hands,  of  spiritual  vir- 
tues and  powers,  we  do  believe  in  the  perpetual  presence 


MARK  HOPKINS  221 

of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  of  the  Shekinah,  in  his  Church, 
and  in  a  succession  for  six  thousand  years,  in  one  un- 
broken line  from  the  first  martyr,  through  Moses  and 
Daniel  and  the  Apostles,  of  those  who  have  inherited 
the  promises  and  died  in  faith;  and  in  the  transmis- 
sion through  them,  so  that  they  have  always  lived  and 
glowed  somewhere,  of  the  great  ideas  of  God's  su- 
premacy, and  of  man's  right  to  worship  him  according 
to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience.  In  this  line  our  fa- 
thers stood,  these  ideas  flaming  up  in  them  like  a  bea- 
con-light; they  stood,  worthy  successors  of  those  of  old 
in  the  same  line,  who  "wandered  in  deserts,  and  in 
mountains,  and  in  dens,  and  in  caves  of  the  earth."  In 
this  line  we  would  stand. 

The  religious  element  being  thus  the  central  one  in 
the  history  of  this  world,  our  next  inquiry  is,  whether 
its  free  and  legitimate  expansion  would  secure  all  that 
belongs  to  the  well-being  of  society.  Is  it  through  this 
that  the  Divine  idea  must  find  its  realization  and  coun- 
terpart ? 

That  this  is  so  we  believe,  in  the  first  place,  because 
we  believe  in  the  word  of  God,  and  that  says  it  is  so. 

Again,  we  believe  it  because  God  has  so  constituted 
this  world,  and,  doubtless,  the  universe,  that  he  who 
aims  at  a*  d  secures  the  highest  good  in  any  department 
or  sphere,  will  also  incidentally,  and  so  best,  secure  the 
greatest  amount  of  subordinate  good.  This  is  the  gen- 
eral law,  and  whatever  exceptions  to  it  there  may  seem 
to  be  are  accidental  and  temporary.  In  this  principle 
lies  the  secret  of  the  unconscious  power  wielded  by  our 
fathers. 

Upon  the  general  illustration  of  a  proposition  so 
broad  as  this  we  can  not  now  enter.  It  must  suffice  to 
notice  its  application  in  organic  systems  where  there  is 
mutual  relation  and  interaction  of  parts.  In  these  that 


222  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

which  is  highest  is  indeed  formed  by  the  lower,  but 
when  formed  it  reacts  upon  that  lower  and  becomes 
necessary  to  its  perfection.  Thus  the  brain,  the  high- 
est and  most  central  part  of  the  body,  is  that  to  which 
all  the  other  parts  are  subordinate ;  but  this  reacts,  and 
ministers  a  pervading  and  vital  influence  to  every  in- 
ferior part,  essential  both  to  their  functions  and  growth, 
and  the  perfection  of  the  brain  will  both  imply  and 
secure  that  of  every  inferior  part. 

So  in  the  tree.  For  the  purposes  of  its  own  growth 
and  well-being  it  forms  the  leaves  highest  and  last ;  but 
it  is  only  as  these  expand  freely  in  the  air  and  sunlight 
that  the  roots  will  strike  themselves  deepest,  and  the 
trunk  be  enlarged,  and  the  vitality  prolonged.  The 
tree  grows  from  its  top.  And  here  is  the  model  of  po- 
litical and  social  growth.  Society  is  built  up  like  an 
individual.  Like  a  tree,  it  grows  from  its  top.  Let 
the  nutritive  and  circulatory  movements  of  society  flow 
freely  on  and  up  to  the  quickening  and  expansion  of  an 
intellectual  life,  and  that  will  so  react — as  we  see  it 
doing  in  our  day,  by  the  application  of  science  to  art — 
as  to  give  to  the  material  interests  themselves  a  range 
and  power  entirely  unknown  before.  And  then  let  the 
top  still  expand  into  the  higher  air  and  purer  light  of 
beauty,  and  of  moral  and  religious  truth,  and  in  every 
fibre  at  the  root  will  be  felt  the  upward  movement ;  and 
there  will  descend  nutritive  power  and  regulative  prin- 
ciples, causing  a  growth  that  will  defy  the  touch  of 
time,  that  time  will  only  strengthen  and  enlarge.  The 
elaborated  wisdom  of  sages  will  descend  and  diffuse 
itself  into  all  the  currents  of  thought,  and  reach  the 
springs  and  motives  of  action,  and  will  eliminate  evils 
by  those  gradual  organic  revolutions  which  come  on 
like  the  tide,  but  which  no  human  power  can  set  back. 

The  difficulty  with  past  civilizations  has  been  that 


MARK  HOPKINS  223 

they  did  not  form  an  adequate  top.  The  products  of 
the  physical  and  intellectual  life  circulated  in  and  for 
themselves,  and  hence  plethora,  stagnation,  debility, 
spasms,  and  dissolution.  This  is  the  stereotyped  round 
in  which  families  and  nations  perish  through  prosper- 
ity. But  if  these  products  might  flow  on  and  up,  if  the 
affections  might  distribute  them  rather  than  appetite, 
benevolence  rather  than  ostentation,  and  principle 
rather  than  fashion  and  caprice;  if  they  might  minister 
to  a  pure  and  spiritual  religion,  and  be  controlled  and 
distributed  by  that,  it  is  not  for  the  imagination  to  de- 
pict the  beauty  and  blessedness  that  would  pervade 
society. 

Particularly  do  we  believe  that  there  would  spring 
from  this  a  higher  culture  of  all  that  pertains  to 
beauty ;  and  only  from  this  a  permanent  civil  liberty. 

There  has  been  an  impression  that  the  virtues  of  our 
fathers  were  stern  and  repulsive  of  beauty.  And  so  is 
the  mountain-top  stern,  where  the  storms  wrestle,  and 
the  snow  abides,  and  the  ice  congeals;  but  from  that 
mountain-top  comes  the  beauty  that  looks  up  at  its  base, 
and  that  skirts  the  stream  on  its  long  way  to  the  ocean. 
So  will  the  sterner  virtues  always  melt  into  beauty 
when  the  storms  and  cold  with  which  they  have  to  con- 
tend have  passed  away.  Beauty  is  of  God,  and  it  can 
not  be  that  he  who  has  woven  the  web  of  light  in  its 
colors,  and  so  wrought  its  golden  threads  into  the  tis- 
sue of  nature,  who  paints  the  flower,  and  unfurls  the 
banner  of  sunset,  should  not  delight  in  all  beauty,  and 
that  it  should  not  proceed  from  all  godlikeness.  We 
believe,  indeed,  that  only  as  there  are  with  God  himself, 
the  high  and  stern  mountains  of  a  holiness  and  justice 
unapproachable,  does  there  proceed  from  him  the  smile 
that  makes  the  violet  glad.  Neither  Christ  nor  his 
apostles  concerned  themselves  with  art;  they  did  not 


224  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

even  speak  of  it.  The  struggle  with  moral  evil  was  too 
earnest.  Let  this  be  overcome,  and  the  alliance  be- 
tween the  arts  and  the  baser  passions  dissolved,  and 
there  would  spring  up  in  connection  with  the  industry 
and  science  and  wealth  that  religion  would  produce,  a 
diffused  beauty  in  nature  and  in  art  of  which  we  have 
now  no  conception. 

That  there  can  be  permanent  civil  liberty  only 
through  the  religious  nature  is  evident,  because  it  is 
only  through  this  that  the  true  idea  of  a  state,  and  of 
its  relation  to  the  individual  will  ever  be  seen.  Through 
the  awakening  in  each  man,  and  the  growth  of  those 
powers  by  which  he  is  connected  with  God  and  with 
immortality,  and  is  bound  above  all  things  to  conform 
his  spiritual  nature  to  its  law,  the  individual  becomes 
an  end  in  himself,  and  thus  finds  a  ground  for  demand- 
ing that  nothing  shall  exist,  whether  in  Church  or  in 
state,  that  may  stand  between  him  and  the  freest,  and 
highest  expansion  of  these  powers ;  nothing  which  shall 
make  use  of  him  for  its  own  sake,  and  so  degrade  him 
from  a  person  into  a  thing.  This  is  the  principle  con- 
tended for  by  our  fathers.  On  this  ground  man  has  a 
right  to  claim  that  outward  institutions,  civil  and  reli- 
gious, shall  be  for  the  individual;  shall  be  means  and 
conditions  of  growth  to  his  higher  powers,  as.  the  air, 
and  light,  and  food  are  of  the  growth  of  the  body; 
and  if  they  are  not  so,  or  are  obstructive  of  that  end, 
then,  on  the  same  ground,  he  has  a  right  to  remove  and 
destroy  them.  The  Church  and  the  state  can  become 
a  part  of  the  beautiful  unity  in  the  Divine  plan,  and 
have  a  right  to  be,  only  as  they  fit  the  individual  who 
comes  under  their  agency  for  a  higher  sphere;  and 
they  are  perfect,  and  from  God,  just  in  proportion  as 
they  furnish  the  best  possible  conditions  of  individual 
growth  in  all  that  belongs  to  a  true  manhood.  In  the 


MARK  HOPKINS  225 

light  of  these  powers  man  is  seen  to  have  worth  and 
dignity,  rights  to  have  sacredness,  and  the  life  of  the 
lowliest  is  invested  with  a  solemn  grandeur.  Here,  in- 
deed, is  the  basis  of  rights,  and  so  of  that  freedom 
which  springs  from  rights  and  respects  rights,  which 
has  God  for  its  author,  the  good  of  all  through  that  of 
each  for  its  end,  and  for  which,  in  the  light  of  reason 
and  conscience,  a  man  may  lay  down  his  life. 

Now  what  we  ask,  and  all  that  we  ask  is,  institutions, 
both  civil  and  religious,  pervaded  by  this  freedom,  flex- 
ible to  the  demands  of  individual  growth ;  and  the  right 
of  the  people  to  judge  what  modifications  that  may 
require.  Especially  do  we  demand,  in  the  name  of  hu- 
manity and  of  God,  religious  freedom.  Upon  that  all 
other  freedom  rests.  On  this  subject  especially  do  we 
demand  the  right  of  free  action  and  of  free  speech,  not 
only  in  the  church  but  in  the  street,  and  the  day  is  not 
yet  when  that  can  be  taken  from  us. 

We  believe  that  government  and  rulers  are  for  the 
people,  the  church  and  the  clergy  for  the  laity,  and 
that  God  has  given  to  men  the  right,  as  in  their  civil, 
so  in  their  religious  capacity,  honestly  using  all  the 
light  he  has  given  them,  whether  of  reason  or  of  reve- 
lation, so  to  organize  themselves,  both  in  Church  and 
state,  as  will  best  secure  civil  rights  and  spiritual 
growth;  and  organizations  so  originated  and  so  result- 
ing we  believe  to  be  of  God.  They  are  not  rebellion, 
they  are  not  schism ;  they  are  component  parts  of  God's 
one  great  and  free  kingdom  which  he  will  love,  and 
own,  and  bless,  and  they  ought  to  be  recognized  as 
such.  His  sun  has  not  shone  less  brightly,  nor  his  rain 
and  dew  descended  less  bountifully  upon  these  United 
States  since  they  organized  themselves  thus,  than  when 
governed  by  one  who  was  "king  by  the  grace  of  God;" 
nor  have  the  sunshine  of  his  love,  and  the  rain  and 


226  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

dews  of  his  grace  been  less  abundant  upon  our  churches 
than  upon  those  governed  and  blessed  by  popes  and 
prelates. 

Opposed  to  the  free  and  flexible  systems  which  this 
principle  would  form  are  those — and  they  include  all 
others — which  have  an  end  in  themselves,  to  which  the 
individual  is  squared,  and  hewed,  and  bent,  and  made 
subservient.  Under  these  there  will  be,  not  true  free- 
dom, but  a  mixture  of  license  and  restraint.  Those 
who  manage  them  are  willing  that  the  productive  fac- 
ulties of  man  should  be  sharpened  to  any  extent;  they 
favor  caste,  or  something  equivalent,  for  that  purpose. 
They  give  full  scope  to  the  sensitive  and  sensuous  na- 
ture; they  patronize  and  subsidize  the  fine  arts;  they 
provide  processions,  and  games,  and  books  of  sports  for 
the  people,  and  they  have  standing  armies  to  keep  them 
in  order.  If  the  sugar-plum  will  not  do,  they  have  the 
whip.  But,  recognizing  instinctively  the  main  doctrine 
of  this  discourse,  they  uniformly  either  dwarf  or  per- 
vert the  religious  nature.  They  intervene  in  every  pos- 
sible way  between  man  and  his  Maker,  assuming 
ghostly  powers,  and  constructing  conduits  and  channels 
by  which  the  grace  of  God  may  be  conveyed  to  the  pro- 
fane people  who  may  not  have  immediate  access  to  him. 
This  is  their  great  resource.  This  done,  they  may  mock 
at  revolution  and  bide  their  time,  knowing  that  when 
the  Louis  Philippe,  or  the  Louis  Napoleon,  or  Santa 
Anna,  that  is  sure  to  come  shall  appear,  the  bewildered 
and  helpless  people  will  relapse  into  monarchy.  They 
think  little  of  the  crimes  and  vices  which  spring  from 
the  depraved  appetites  and  passions;  and  if  the  clergy 
will  pray  according  to  the  rubric  and  conform  to  the 
canons,  they  may  be  indolent,  inefficient,  dishonest,  li- 
centious, profane,  without  rebuke.  But  if  a  clergyman 
cannot  wear  a  stole,  or  a  surplice,  or  a  white  gown,  or  a 


MARK  HOPKINS  227 

black  one ;  if  a  few  Christians  meet,  in  a  private  house 
even,  for  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  for  prayer;  if 
the  Madiai  read  the  Bible;  if  Miss  Cunningham  distrib- 
ute a  Bible  and  Pilgrim's  Progress,  then  come  confisca- 
tions, imprisonments,  banishment,  death.  It  is  for 
those  who  do  these  things  that  the  dungeon,  and  the 
slow  fire,  and  the  rack  are  prepared.  It  is  these  whom 
malice  pursues  after  death,  and  casts  out  and  buries 
with  the  burial  of  a  dog.  Those  who  use  missals  and 
say  prayers,  they  like;  those  who  read  the  Bible  and 
pray,  they  persecute. 

There  is  no  book  that  they  so  fear  as  they  do  the 
Bible ;  none  that  they  are  so  afraid  to  have  the  children 
read.  They  keep  it  out  of  their  schools,  and  of  their 
seats  of  power,  as  they  would  the  plague.  They  burn 
it.  They  can  evade  any  thing,  and  stand  before  any 
thing  but  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word 
of  God. 

Such  systems,  whether  called  Christian  or  heathen, 
are  essentially  the  same.  They  wish  to  use  man  as  a 
thing,  and  so  intervene  between  him  and  God.  Under 
them  civilization  may  advance  far,  and  aggregate 
power  accumulate,  and  endure  long,  but  man  will  de- 
teriorate, and  destruction  from  without  or  within  is 
certain.  Still,  when  one  system  is  destroyed,  another 
will  arise.  Forms  may  be  changed,  but  the  spirit  will 
be  the  same;  revolution  may  succeed  revolution,  till 
they  shall  have  as  little  significance  as  street  brawls,  and 
there  be  as  many  days  of  July  as  there  are  days  in 
July,  but  there  will  be  balanced,  and  permanent  freedom 
only  as  there  is  religion  in  liberty. 

As  might  be  anticipated  from  what  has  been  said, 
the  special  support  of  all  such  systems,  aside  from  phys- 
ical force,  has  been  in  an  appeal  to  the  religious  na- 
ture. An  exclusive  divine  right  has  been  claimed. 


228  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

That  of  prelates  the  Pilgrims  rejected;  that  of  kings 
they  conceded.  Now,  that  of  kings  is  exploded,  at 
least  here.  We  put  it  on  the  same  footing  as  the  Di- 
vine right  of  constables.  That  of  prelates,  being  more 
closely  connected  with  that  religious  nature  from  which 
is  all  our  hope,  but  into  which  every  superstition  strikes 
its  roots,  is  still  conceded  by  many,  and  is  at  this  mo- 
ment the  one  antagonistic  element  among  us  to  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  our  fathers.  The  Pope  and 
certain  bishops  claim  a  divine  right,  received  by  trans- 
mission in  an  unbroken  line  from  the  Apostles,  to  gov- 
ern the  Church ;  and  in  connection  with  this  they  claim 
the  power  either  to  change  bread  into  flesh  and  wine 
into  blood,  or  to  communicate  some  virtue  to  the  sacra- 
ments which  they  would  not  have  if  administered  by 
persons  appointed  for  that  purpose  in  some  other  way. 
Is  this  claim  valid?  If  so,  then  Popery  and  Puseyism 
are  right,  and  all  Protestants,  Church  of  England  and 
all,  are  schismatics  and  heretics.  If  so,  there  are  bless- 
ings in  Christianity  which  we  cannot  have  by  going 
directly  to  God.  These  men  hold  them  in  their  hands, 
and  the  whole  race  is  at  their  mercy.  If  so,  Christ  is 
not  the  only  priest  under  the  new  dispensation,  and  the 
benefit  of  the  sacraments  will  not  be  wholly  from  him 
through  faith,  but  partly,  at  least,  from  a  mysterious 
virtue  in  the  elements  which  these  persons  only  can  give. 
This  claim  we  reject  utterly.  We  say  that  Christ  has 
made  all  his  people  "Kings  and  priests  unto  God,"  and 
nothing  shall  take  from  us  the  right  to  go  directly  to 
God  through  the  one  great  High  Priest.  All  systems 
based  on  this  claim  are  and  must  be  exclusive  and  intol- 
erant, and  have  always  been  connected  with  an  ignorant 
and  oppressed  people. 

Our  principles,  on  the  other  hand,  forbid  exclusive- 
ness,  and  whatever  of  this  we  may  have,  is  due,  not  to 


MARK  HOPKINS  229 

them,  but  to  personal  infirmity.  They  call  upon  us 
to  exercise  a  large  charity.  Give  us  those  essential  con- 
ditions through  which  the  spiritual  nature  may  be  best 
developed;  give  us  the  right  of  private  judgment;  give 
us  the  Bible; — and  here  I  wish  the  time  would  per- 
mit me  to  repeat  to  you  fully  the  recent  words  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Primate  of  England,  pressed 
from  him  in  his  conflict  with  Popery,  in  which  he 
stands,  not  for  "the  Bible  interpreted  by  the  prayer- 
book," — that  would  not  do  for  him, — but  for  the  Bible 
alone,  and  says,  "Whatever  is  not  absolutely  declared 
therein,  and  yet  claims  to  be  implicitly  received,  I  look 
upon  with  suspicion,"  thus  sanctioning  the  very  prin- 
ciple contended  for  by  Robinson,  and  all  that  he  con- 
tended for. — Give  us,  I  say,  the  Bible,  and  that  alone 
as  our  standard;  and  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  so  far  as  to  exclude  all  priestly  intervention  be- 
tween us  and  God,  and  we  can  feel  that  we  stand  shoul- 
der to  shoulder  with  the  multitude  of  our  brethren  of 
every  name — with  the  Hollanders  who  had  the  same 
spirit  with  the  Puritans — with  the  Huguenots,  those 
nobles  in  God's  kingdom  than  whom  none  were  ever 
nobler — with  the  Presbyterians,  whose  fathers  strug- 
gled in  Scotland,  as  ours  did  in  England — with  the 
great  company  of  Methodists  and  Baptists,  and  also 
with  our  Episcopal  brethren,  so  far  as  they  will  per- 
mit us.  "We  would  gladly  embrace  them  with  both 
arms."  We  do  not  object  to  Episcopacy  as  a  form  of 
government  preferred  by  the  people,  but  to  its  being 
imposed  upon  us  as  exclusively  of  divine  right,  and 
to  that  spirit  of  the  clergy  generally,  and  of  the  laity 
increasingly,  which  says,  "Stand  by  thyself,  I  am  holier 
than  thou."  "I  belong  to  a  church,  and  you  do  not." 
"I  have  a  right  to  preach  and  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, and  you  have  not."  "There  are  blessings  in 


230  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Christianity  which  you  can  have  only  by  coming  to  us," 
— "an  all-grasping"  spirit  "which  gives  no  quarter,  al- 
lows no  truce,  but  demands  an  unconditional  submis- 
sion." If  history  did  not  instruct  us  in  the  uniform 
tendency  of  this  exclusive  principle,  we  might  be  sur- 
prised to  hear  the  excellent  and  venerable  bishops  in 
their  late  address,  while  they  claim  a  middle  place  be- 
tween the  Romanists  and  us,  complain  of  the  treatment 
they  receive  from  them,  and  then  turn  at  once  and 
treat  us  in  the  same  manner,  not  allowing  that  we  are 
Churches  at  all,  or  bodies  of  Christians  even,  but  only 
"forms  of  error."  "On  the  one  hand,"  say  they,  "we 
behold  an  all-grasping  Romanism  which  gives  no  quar- 
ter, allows  no  truce,  but  demands  an  unconditional  sub- 
mission. On  the  other  hand  are  various  forms  of  error 
still  pervaded,  more  or  less  by  the  true  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  constantly  breaking  into  fragments,  and 
steadily  tending  to  latitudinarianism  and  infidelity."  1 
In  exclusiveness  and  unconscious  misrepresentation  can 
any  thing  go  beyond  this  ?  Here  it  is — no  quarter,  no 
truce,  but  unconditional  submission — and  that,  too,  to 
those  who  hold  precisely  the  same  relation  to  the  Ro- 
manists that  we  hold  to  them — unconditional  submis- 
sion, or  we  must  be  given  over  to  "uncovenanted  mer- 
cies," and  infidelity  and  perdition.  Now  all  this  we 
greatly  regret.  Most  gladly  would  we  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  them  and  try  to  do  the  work  of  our 
common  Master.  We  will  try  to  do  it  still;  we  too 
have  a  ministry  and  ordinances  that  we  think  are  of 
divine  institution ;  we  have  an  open  Bible  and  a  merci- 
ful God  and  Saviour.  If  he  shall  show  us  that  we 
are  wrong,  that  he  does  not  intend  to  work  in  accor- 
dance with  the  general  principle  and  scheme  of  freedom 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  that  the  labors  and  sufferings 
1  Triennial  Convention,  New- York. 


MARK  HOPKINS  231 

and  great  promise  of  the  past  were  all  vain  and  delu- 
sive, we  will  abandon  our  cherished  associations  for  the 
dear  sake  of  him  whom  our  fathers  at  least  sought 
to  follow.  We  will  then  give  in  our  unconditional  sub- 
mission. 

But  to  us  the  prospect  is  not  altogether  dark.  We 
are  encouraged  by  the  remembrance  of  the  blessing  of 
God  in  the  past,  and  we  hope  he  will  continue  to  bless 
us.  We  do  not  believe,  as  they  seem  to  think,  that  his 
past  signal  blessings  have  been  an  unaccountable  mis- 
take which  he  will  rectify  in  future;  but  rather,  if  we 
shall  not  prove  recreant,  that  they  are  but  earnests  of 
greater  blessings  to  come.  If  we  see  among  us  ten- 
dencies to  be  struggled  against,  requiring  wisdom  and 
prayer,  surely  we  are  not  alone  in  this.  We  had  sup- 
posed that  we  were  gaining  strength,  and  not  only  we, 
but  the  great  body  of  kindred  churches.  We  suppose 
so  still,  and  that  the  prospect  for  the  diffusion  and  ulti- 
mate triumph,  substantially,  of  the  great  principles  of 
religious  and  civil  freedom  held  by  the  Puritans,  was 
never  more  encouraging.  Those  principles  that  were 
cabined  in  the  Mayflower — the  same  once  inclosed  by 
the  walls  of  an  upper  chamber  in  Jerusalem — and  that, 
two  hundred  and  thirty-three  years  ago,  this  day,  were 
first  breathed  into  the  atmosphere  of  this  continent 
from  Plymouth  Rock,  have  seemed  to  abide  in  it  there 
as  a  mighty  spell,  and  have  so  diffused  and  mingled 
themselves  with  it  every  where,  that  the  whole  people 
breathe  them  in  as  with  the  very  breath  of  their  life; 
and  so  that  no  chemistry  of  tyranny,  civil  or  ecclesias- 
tical, can  ever  get  them  out.  They  were  never  as 
strong  as  they  are  to-day.  They  make  little  show  of 
unity  by  great  convocations.  They  affect  no  pomp, 
and  provide  no  prizes  for  a  worldly  ambition.  They  are 
in  the  world  under  the  same  aspect  and  conditions  as 


232  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Christ  himself  was — as  spiritual  Christianity,  and  truth, 
and  civil  liberty  have  always  been.  Wealth  does  not 
gravitate  toward  them ;  fashion  has  no  affinity  for  them. 
The  votaries  of  these  more  often  detach  themselves 
and  float  to  other  centres.  In  their  simplicity  they 
stand,  like  the  heavens,  unpropped  by  visible  pillars. 
They  seem,  if  not  born,  yet  as  it  were  born  again  for 
this  continent  and  this  age,  and  for  that  oceanic  breadth 
and  depth  of  movement  which  is  clearly  before  society 
and  the  Church.  They  ally  themselves  with  all  that  is 
peculiar  in  our  free  institutions,  with  all  that  is  most 
simple  and  grand  in  the  works  of  God,  with  all  that 
is  free  and  mighty  in  the  movements  of  the  elements, 
with  all  that  is  comprehensive  in  charity,  and  great  in 
effort  and  self-sacrifice.  Like  the  electric  fluid,  they 
are  subtle  and  pervasive,  often  working  silently,  and 
seen  only  in  their  effects  as  they  quicken  the  growth  of 
the  plants  of  righteousness,  and  crystallize  the  gems 
that  are  to  be  set  in  the  diadem  of  the  Redeemer.  But 
when  the  storm  shall  come,  if  come  it  must,  that  final 
storm  that  is  to  shake  "not  the  earth  only,  but  also 
heaven,"  that  those  things  which  cannot  be  shaken 
may  remain,  then  they  will  be  abroad  in  their  might; 
now  imperceptibly  controlling  affinities,  and  now  flash- 
ing out  in  their  brightness,  and  speaking  in  thunder- 
tones  in  the  moral  and  political  heavens.  To  the  ears 
of  the  oppressed  in  every  land  those  tones  will  be  as 
music.  To  the  grave  where  freedom  may  still  be 
buried,  they  will  be  as  the  trump  of  God.  She  will 
hear  them  and  come  forth  clothed  in  the  garments  of 
her  immortality,  and  the  nations  shall  walk  and  dwell 
with  her. 

These  principles  we  receive.  We  wish  no  antago- 
nism with  any  body,  or  any  thing,  except  that  which 
would  be  necessitated  by  faithfulness  to  them.  We 


MARK  HOPKINS  233 

wish  to  know  where,  and  through  what  it  is  that  God 
is  working,  and  to  work  with  him.  This  we  would  do 
in  peace,  and  without  being  persecuted,  or  reviled,  or 
cast  out,  if  we  may :  but  at  all  hazards  we  would  work 
with  him.  This  it  is,  and  not  mere  freedom,  civil  or 
religious,  that  is  to  save  us ;  and  we  receive  these  prin- 
ciples because  we  believe  that  God  is  working  through 
them,  and  that  by  them,  as  by  the  sling  and  stone,  de- 
liverance is  to  come.  We  receive  them  because  we  be- 
lieve that  the  might  of  Omnipotence  is  in  them;  and 
that  the  promise  of  the  Immutable  One  is  theirs. 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  THE  PILGRIMS 

* 

WILLIAM   MAXWELL   EVARTS 
1854 


WILLIAM   MAXWELL  EVARTS 
(1818-1901.) 

THE  oration  of  1854  was  given  at  the  Church  of  the  Messiah  by 
William  M.  Evarts,  then  eminent  in  his  profession,  though  it 
was  yet  some  years  before  the  Lemmon  slave  case  gave  him 
wide  reputation.  He  was  active  in  the  Fremont  campaign,  and 
a  notable  member  of  the  Seward  delegation  at  the  Chicago 
Convention.  He  was  defeated  in  the  contest  for  the  senator- 
ship  in  1861,  but  his  ability  was  now  clearly  established. 
Under  President  Lincoln  he  was  intrusted  with  a  private  mis- 
sion to  Europe,  and  later  he  was  one  of  the  counsel  of  the 
United  States  before  the  Geneva  Tribunal.  He  defended  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  and  was  the  leading  advocate  for  Mr.  Hayes 
before  the  Electoral  Commission.  His  last  public  service  was 
that  of  six  years  in  the  Senate — 1883-1889.  Of  him  Lord  Sel- 
borne,  the  counsel  for  England  at  Geneva,  wrote:  "He  was 
.  .  .  keen  but  high-minded — in  conversation  sincere  and  can- 
did— I  could  have  trusted  him  implicitly  in  anything  in  which 
I  had  to  deal  with  him  alone  ...  he  was  a  good  lawyer, 
a  skilful  advocate,  and  had  also  the  qualities  of  a  statesman. 
.  .  .  Altogether  he  was  a  man  of  whom  any  country  might 
be  proud." 

The  date  of  the  following  address  drawing  near,  and  having  no 
time  in  town  for  preparation,  Mr.  Evarts  went  for  a  little  quiet 
to  the  home  of  his  late  partner,  J.  Prescott  Hall,  at  Newport, 
where  the  speech  was  written.  On  the  guest's  departure,  one 
of  the  maids  inquired: 

"What  did  you  have  that  crazy  man  here  for?" 

"She  had  heard  me,"  explained  Mr.  Evarts,  who  related  the  inci- 
dent with  relish,  "repeating  sentences  aloud  to  see  if  they 
jumped  right." 


ORATION 

"Quorum  gloriae  neque  profuit  quisquam  laudando, 
ncc  vituperando  quisquam  nocuit." 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  New  England 
Society: 


custom  by  which  we  celebrate  this  anniver- 
-L  sary  would  find  its  sufficient  support  in  the  senti- 
ment of  ancestral  veneration.  "The  glory  of  the  chil- 
dren is  their  fathers."  Of  every  worthy  stock  the  not 
degenerate  sons  cherish  the  names  of  those  from  whom 
by  an  authentic  lineage  they  trace  their  honorable  de- 
scent. With  zealous  affection  and  a  pious  reverence 
they  explore  all  sources  of  knowledge  respecting  their 
lives,  their  characters,  their  motives,  their  acts.  In  a 
spirit  neither  arrogant  nor  envious,  they  are  yet  jealous 
for  a  just  estimate  of  the  virtue  and  the  power  which 
marked  the  founders  of  their  line;  careful  that  no 
malign  or  reckless  influence  shall  distort  the  record,  or 
obscure  the  remembrance,  of  their  deeds  ;  earnest  in  the 
determination  that  their  latest  descendants  shall  lose 
nothing  of  their  heritage  in  these  great  names,  in  the 
course  of  its  descent.  Nor  should  it  be  for  a  moment 
supposed  that  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and  the 
structure  of  our  society,  which  have  discarded  the  he- 
reditary transmission  of  rank  and  power,  discouraged 
even  the  succession  of  wealth,  and  made  ridiculous  the 

237 


238  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

culture  of  a  vulgar  family  pride,  have  at  all  weakened 
or  diverted  the  force  of  those  natural  ties  which  connect 
us  alike  with  our  ancestry  and  our  posterity,  and  sus- 
tain and  protect,  as  a  perpetual  and  imperishable  pos- 
session, the  glory  and  worth  of  our  forefathers.  Say 
rather  that,  as  you  strip  from  this  heritable  relation,  all 
that  is  false  or  factitious,  all  that  is  casual  or  valueless, 
you  give  new  force  to  this  genuine  lineage  of  noble 
character,  this  true  heirship  to  greatness  of  purpose  and 
of  action.  Upon  the  recurrence  of  this  day,  then,  al- 
though the  great  transaction  which  has  made  it  illus- 
trious, had  drawn  after  it  no  such  magnificent  train  of 
consequences  as  history  now  attributes  to  it,  although 
the  noble  undertaking  had  attained  to  no  proportionate 
grandeur  of  result,  it  would  become  us  to  meet  with 
sincere  filial  devotion,  and  add  one  stone  to  the  monu- 
ment inscribed  in  honor  of  the  Puritan  Exiles,  one  note 
to  the  anthem  of  their  fame. 

But  the  actual  course  of  history  has  not  left  the 
"Landing  of  the  Pilgrims"  an  isolated  or  fruitless  oc- 
currence, buried  in  the  grave  of  the  past,  nor  confined 
its  interest  to  the  private  and  peculiar  considerations 
which  should  affect  the  inheritors  of  their  blood  and 
names.  It  is  as  the  principal  and  initial  in  a  still  con- 
tinuing series  of  great  events,  as  the  operative  and  un- 
exhausted cause  of  large  results  already  transpired,  and 
larger  yet  surely  to  ensue,  that  we  chiefly  applaud  the 
transaction  of  this  day.  Upon  the  Rock  of  Plymouth 
was  pressed  the  first  footstep  of  that  energetic  and 
creative  power  in  human  affairs  which  has  since  over- 
run the  continent,  and  is  stopped  in  its  sublime  progress, 
if  it  be  stopped  at  all,  only  with  the  shores  of  the  all- 
containing  sea.  Through  the  actual  aspect  of  the  scene 
of  the  debarkation,  made  up  of  wintry  sea  and  gloomy 
sky,  and  bleak  and  desolate  coast,  we  see  breaking  the 
effulgence  of  those  moral  elements  of  light  and  hope 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        239 

which  have  ever  since  shone  with  so  conspicuous  splen- 
dor, and  the  spot  seems  to  us  the  brightest  and  the 
warmest  on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  bright,  as  the  source 
and  fountain  of  those  radiant  glories  of  freedom  in 
whose  glad  light  we  live;  warm,  with  the  fervent  glow 
of  that  beneficent  activity  which  pervades  and  invigo- 
rates the  life  of  this  whole  nation,  which  has  secured 
the  progress  of  the  past  and  forms  the  hope  of  the 
future. 

"Ille  terrarum  mihi,  praeter  omnes, 
Angulus  ridet." 

It  is  New  England,  as  she  was  first  founded,  as  she 
has  since  been  established  and  built  up,  as  she  now  is, — 
mother  of  men,  source  of  great  ideas,  nurse  of  great 
principles,  battle-ground  of  great  conflicts, — that  we 
celebrate  in  this  commemoration. 

There  is  one  circumstance  in  our  situation,  as  as- 
sembled here,  which  cannot  escape  our  attention.  We 
are  without  the  borders  of  New  England,  yet  no  exiles 
from  our  country;  we  are  beyond  the  protection  of 
those  governments  that  still  rule  over  the  soil  of  the 
Puritan  plantations,  yet  we  have  neither  lost  our  birth- 
right there,  nor  are  we  strangers  here;  however  gen- 
erous and  cordial  has  been  our  reception  in  the  commu- 
nity in  which  we  live,  yet  we  have  come  hither,  and 
here  remain,  neither  by  sufferance  nor  by  any  title  of 
courtesy  or  hospitality;  we  are  here  of  right  and  at 
home.  As  it  is  with  us  in  this  central  metropolis,  so 
is  it  with  our  brethren,  the  descendants  of  our  com- 
mon ancestors,  in  the  fair  cities  of  the  South,  and  in 
the  wide  valley  of  the  West ; 

"And  where  the  sun,  with  softer  fires, 
Looks  on  the  vast  Pacific's  sleep; 
The  children  of  the  Pilgrim  sires, 
This  hallowed  day,  like  us,  do  keep." 


24o  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

New  England  has  enlarged  the  dominion  of  her  laws 
over  no  wider  territorial  limits  than  at  the  first,  yet  for 
her  expanding  population,  for  her  institutions,  her  cus- 
toms, her  moral,  social,  political  and  religious  influ- 
ences, she  has  received  a  truly  imperial  extension.  As 
an  integral  portion  of  the  great  Federal  Republic,  pro- 
duced by  the  double  act  of  Independence  and  of  Union, 
in  which  she  took  so  large  and  decisive  a  part,  New 
England — losing  nothing  of  her  local  identity  and  her 
express  individuality — yet  has  her  chief  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities at  present  and  in  the  future ;  and  in  every 
just  estimate  of  what  the  vital  forces  of  the  Puritan 
character  have  hitherto  effected,  or  may  yet  be  ex- 
pected to  accomplish,  this  relation  of  New  England 
must  be  largely  considered. 

While  the  influences  of  the  occasion  direct  our  view 
mainly  to  the  past,  still  our  contemplations,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  would  not  wisely  take  the  course  either  of  anti- 
quarian curiosity,  or  historical  research,  or  controver- 
sial attack  or  vindication.  All  consultation  of  the  past 
is  vain,  unless  our  questioning  find  out  some  key  and 
guide  to  the  future.  Man  escapes  from  the  unsatis- 
fying present,  and  lengthens  the  brief  span  of  his  per- 
sonal existence,  by  laying  hold  upon  the  past,  and 
reaching  forward  to  the  future;  but  of  the  past  only  is 
he  secure,  and  in  it  he  must  find  the  forest  and  the 
quarry  from  which  to  hew  out  the  shapely  structures 
of  the  future.  It  was  an  annual  custom  among  the 
Romans,  in  the  more  religious  period  of  their  history, 
as  the  year  approached  its  close,  for  the  augurs  and 
other  high  priests  to  make  a  solemn  observation  of  the 
signs,  by  which  they  might  predict  the  fortunes  of  the 
republic  for  the  coming  year.  This  "augurium  salu- 
tis,"  this  presage  of  the  public  welfare,  may  well  attend 
our  pious  homage  to  the  memory  of  those  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  our  commonwealth,  for  in  these  founda- 


WILLIAM   MAXWELL  EVARTS        241 

tions  shall  we  find  the  surest  indications  of  its  future 
fortunes,  propitious  or  adverse.  Nor  to  ourselves  shall 
a  brief  communion  with  the  stern  natures,  the  elevated 
motives,  the  inspiring  example  of  these  remarkable 
men,  be  without  a  personal  benefit;  our  feebler  spirits 
and  lapsing  energies  may  catch  some  new  vigor  from 
this  contact  with  their  embalmed  virtue,  as  of  old  the 
dead  even  was  revived  by  touching  the  bones  of  the 
prophet  Elisha. 

These  reflections  seem  naturally  to  present  as  an  ap- 
propriate theme,  for  such  consideration  as  the  limits 
of  the  occasion  will  permit,  THE  HERITAGE  OF  THE 
PILGRIMS — as  we  have  received  it  from  them,  as  we 
are  to  transmit  it  to  our  descendants. 

In  attempting  some  analysis  of  the  character,  the 
principles,  the  conduct  of  the  first  settlers  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  an  estimate  of  the  extent  to  which  they  have 
affected  our  past,  and  are  to  shape  our  future,  history, 
I  should  feel  greatly  embarrassed,  were  I  not  assured 
that  the  whole  general  outline  of  the  subject  is  already 
in  your  minds  and  memories,  that  the  true  spirit  and 
temper  for  its  consideration  are  included  in  the  dispo- 
sition which  unites  you  in  this  celebration.  Much 
more  should  I  feel  oppressed,  did  I  for  a  moment  sup- 
pose that  the  interest  of  the  occasion  was  at  all  depen- 
dent upon  any  novelty  of  fact  or  of  illustration,  or  de- 
manded a  brilliant  rhetoric  or  elaborate  oratory.  I 
know  not  what  impressions  the  near  examination  of 
the  acts  and  motives  of  the  Puritan  emigrants  may 
produce  upon  others,  but  to  myself  their  simple  gran- 
deur seems  to  need  no  aid  from  vivid  coloring  or  artful 
exaggeration,  nor  to  incur  much  peril  from  imperfect 
or  inadequate  conceptions.  Resting  upon  the  imper- 
ishable basis  of  real  greatness  of  soul,  their  fame  no 
praise  can  brighten  and  no  censure  dim. 

The  seeds  of  the  movement  which  was  to  emancipate 


242  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

religion  from  prelatical  control,  and  re-establish  the 
equality  of  men  before  their  common  Father,  were  sown 
in  the  English  mind  by  Wickliffe.  Though  their  dis- 
semination had  not  been  sufficient  greatly  to  disturb  the 
quiet  of  the  Church  or  break  the  peace  of  the  realm, 
yet  when,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  afterwards,  Lu- 
ther and  Zuingle  proclaimed,  as  with  a  trumpet,  the 
great  Reformation,  and  raised  high  the  torch  of  reli- 
gious liberty,  the  people  of  England,  from  this  pre- 
vious preparation,  the  more  readily  accepted  the  glad 
tidings,  and  welcomed  the  new  light.  While  the  pure 
flames  of  religious  enthusiasm  were  burning  in  the 
hearts  of  his  people,  their  sovereign,  Henry  VIII, 
threw  off  the  Papal  dominion  upon  a  question,  personal 
to  himself,  in  which  the  Pope  had  proved  uncomplai- 
sant  to  his  wishes.  He  usurped — for,  in  great  measure 
at  least,  it  was  usurpation — the  same  supremacy  in 
matters  of  religion  which  he  had  wrested  from  the 
Pope,  and  declared  himself  the  head  of  the  English 
Church,  subjected  the  whole  control  of  its  doctrine  and 
discipline  to  the  temporal  power,  gave  to  the  prelates 
a  new  master,  but  in  no  degree  satisfied  the  true  de- 
mand of  the  movement  among  his  people,  freedom  of 
conscience  and  independency  in  religion.  Preserving 
still  an  attachment  to  the  religious  tenets  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  he  looked  with  equal  disfavor,  among  his 
subjects,  upon  adhesion  to  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  de- 
sertion of  the  Romish  faith.  The  succeeding  reigns 
of  his  son  Edward  and  his  daughter  Mary,  gave  aid 
and  succor,  the  one  to  the  new  religion,  the  other  to  the 
ancient  faith;  and  when  Elizabeth,  near  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  assumed  the  crown,  she  found 
a  people  distracted  by  religious  contentions.  The  sin- 
gular position  taken  by  King  Henry  had  tended  to  di- 
vide the  realm  into  three  parties, — the  Popish  recusants, 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        243 

who  refused  to  acquiesce  in  the  royal  usurpation  of  the 
Pope's  spiritual  dominion, — the  Protestant  malcon- 
tents, unsatisfied  with  the  rejection  of  the  Pope's  tem- 
poral authority  while  so  much  of  the  corruption  of 
Popery  remained  in  the  ritual  and  worship, — and  the 
supporters  of  the  Church  of  England.  From  the  ac- 
cession of  Elizabeth,  by  education  and  profession  a 
Protestant,  the  more  zealous  reformers  counted  upon 
an  active  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  Crown  in  the 
further  emancipation  and  purification  of  religion.  As 
matter  of  personal  conviction,  the  Queen  was  not  so 
fully  weaned  from  the  old  faith,  but  that  she  retained 
the  crucifix  in  her  own  chapel,  and  attempted  its  resto- 
ration in  the  churches;  and  through  her  whole  reign 
she  refused  a  legal  sanction  to  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy.  But  as  matter  of  state  policy  and  govern- 
ment she  early  adopted,  and  steadily  pursued,  a  sys- 
tem still  more  fatal  to  the  hopes  of  the  party  of  prog- 
ress in  the  Church.  That  great  and  politic  compromise, 
the  Church  Establishment,  for  reasons  wise  or  unwise, 
she  and  her  statesmen  adopted  as  the  true  and  safe  solu- 
tion of  the  religious  distractions  of  her  people,  and  con- 
formity to  its  dogmas  and  its  ceremonies,  was  exacted 
alike  from  the  sullen  Catholic  and  the  ardent  Protes- 
tant. What  till  now  had  been  a  war  of  opinion,  and 
about  matters  in  themselves  of  much  indifferency,  be- 
tween the  two  divisions  of  Protestants,  became  a  war 
of  persecution  by  the  Government  upon  the  offending 
faction.  For  non-conformity,  to  every  degree  of  dis- 
favor and  annoyance,  were  gradually  added  the  graver 
punishments  of  stripes,  imprisonment,  and  death. 

The  party  which  contended  for  a  more  thorough  and 
complete  reformation  of  religion,  and  against  whom  the 
state-craft  of  Elizabeth  conceived  these  machinations 
and  executed  these  oppressions,  received  from  its  op- 


244  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ponents  the  name  of  PURITANS.  They  were  neither 
sectarian  nor  schismatical — nor,  as  yet,  dissenters ;  they 
were  the  front  of  the  Protestant  host  in  the  still  pending 
warfare  with  the  Church  of  Rome;  in  their  judgment 
the  main  battle  of  Protestantism  in  England  was  not 
completely  won,  much  less  its  final  triumph  assured, 
and  they  would  hold  no  truce  with  the  ancient  super- 
stition. They  would  tolerate  no  defence  of  the  surplice 
and  the  cap,  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  or  the  ring  in  mar- 
riage, on  the  plea  that  their  retention  would  conciliate 
the  Papists,  and  reduce  that  disaffection.  With  a  large 
part  of  the  people  of  England  still  clinging  to  the  old 
faith,  and  much  the  greater  portion  of  the  benefices  of 
the  Church  filled  by  dissembling  Protestants,  ready  to 
"resume  their  mass-books  with  more  alacrity  than  they 
had  laid  them  aside,"  the  Puritan  clergy  and  laity  re- 
fused their  adhesion  to  the  policy  of  the  Crown,  and 
struggled  against  conformity.  To  the  strenuousness  of 
their  resistance  to  this  specious  compromise  of  the 
rights  of  conscience  for  the  peace  of  the  realm,  it  may 
well  be  thought,  England  owes  her  safety  from  relapse 
into  Popery. 

The  party  of  the  Puritans  too,  was  neither  small  in 
numbers  nor  made  up  from  any  one  class  of  society. 
Strongest  in  London  and  other  large  towns,  and  among 
the  merchants  and  tradesmen,  during  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth, it  also  embraced,  according  to  Hallam,  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Protestant  gentry  of  England,  and  in- 
cluded not  a  few  eminent  nobles.  The  clergy,  below 
the  grade  of  high  ecclesiastics,  most  famous  for  talents, 
learning  and  eloquence,  espoused  the  cause  of  progress, 
and  so  nearly  did  they  come  to  a  majority  of  the  Con- 
vocation of  1562,  that  a  proposition  to  abolish  the  of- 
fensive usages  failed  by  but  a  single  vote;  the  records 
of  Parliament  throughout  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  show 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        245 

that  the  control  of  the  Commons  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Puritans.  Indeed,  things  were  not  far  from  the 
condition  which  they  reached  in  a  succeeding  reign, 
when,  as  Carlyle  asserts,  "either  in  conscious  act,  or  in 
clear  tendency,  the  far  greater  part  of  the  serious 
thought  and  manhood  of  England  had  declared  itself 
Puritan." 

The  zeal  of  persecution  did  not  long  suffer  the  con- 
troversy to  be  waged  upon  mere  forms  and  ceremonies, 
but  transferred  the  conflict  to  a  battle  for  the  rights  of 
conscience.  The  inquiries  into  the  just  limitations  of 
might  and  right  in  spiritual  matters,  in  turn,  were  di- 
rected to  civil  affairs,  and  the  train  of  causes  was  set 
at  work,  which  at  length  overthrew  the  English  mon- 
archy and  built  up  this  republic  in  the  West. 

I  have  thus  far  described  the  relations  of  the  great 
body  of  the  Puritans  to  the  Reformation  and  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  but  there  was  gradually  developed  among 
them  a  sect  or  division  which  boldly  pushed  the  ques- 
tions at  issue  to  their  ultimate  and  legitimate  solution ; 
which  threw  off  all  connection  with  the  Established 
Church,  rejected  alike  the  surplice  and  the  bishops,  the 
prayer-book  and  the  ceremonies,  and,  resting  upon  the 
Bible,  sought  no  less  than  to  restore  the  constitution 
of  the  Christian  Church  to  the  primitive  simplicity  in 
which  it  was  first  instituted.  These  Separatists,  as  they 
were  called,  put  in  practice  their  theoretical  opinions 
by  the  formation  of  churches  in  which  the  members 
were  the  source  of  all  power  and  controlled  its  admin- 
istration, and,  in  a  word,  applied  to  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganizations principles  which,  if  introduced  into  civil 
government,  would  produce  a  pure  democracy. 

In  the  "mean  townlet  of  Scrooby,"  in  Nottingham- 
shire, recent  investigations  have  accurately  ascertained, 
was  collected  the  Puritan  congregation  of  Separatists, 


246  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

from  which  proceeded  the  first  settlement  of  New  Eng- 
land. They  united  themselves  in  the  simple  and  sol- 
emn compact  of  a  church  covenant  about  the  year  1602, 
and  found  a  place  of  worship,  strangely  enough,  in  an 
Episcopal  manor-house  belonging  to  the  See  of  York, 
but  in  the  tenancy  of  William  Brewster.  John  Rob- 
inson soon  became  their  minister,  and  for  several  years 
they  there  sustained,  as  best  they  might,  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  civil  power,  and  maintained  their  worship. 
This  Christian  Church,  collected  from  a  simple  agricul- 
tural population  in  a  rude  part  of  England,  remote 
from  any  great  centre  of  influence,  was  the  seed  se- 
lected, in  the  wisdom  of  Providence,  for  the  plantation 
of  a  new  community  in  this  Western  world.  With  the 
formation  of  this  Congregational  Church  commences 
the  history  of  New  England,  for  this  compacted,  organ- 
ized body,  this  social  unit,  made  up  and  fitly  framed 
together  in  England,  and  thus  as  an  aggregate  and  per- 
fect whole,  transported  to  America,  made  the  first  set- 
tlement at  Plymouth. 

We  at  once  perceive  that  we  have  here  before  us  the 
ripened  germ,  ready  to  be  severed  from  the  parent 
stock,  whence  was  to  proceed  the  future  growth,  under 
the  eternal  law  of  development  by  which  seeds  produce, 
each  after  its  kind.  As  yet  this  little,  this  peculiar  com- 
munity, had  formed  no  conscious  plan  or  project  look- 
ing to  the  foundation  of  a  new  society,  much  less  of 
an  independent  state.  Yet,  whatever  of  preparatory 
discipline  it  was  to  submit  to  in  the  interval,  whatever 
circumstances,  as  yet  uncertain,  were  to  determine 
where  and  when  it  should  germinate  and  be  developed, 
the  elements  of  weakness  or  of  strength,  the  qualities 
decisive  of  the  growth  which  should  come  from  it,  if 
any  growth  it  should  have,  were  fixed  and  complete. 
Here,  then,  is  the  true  point  at  which  to  observe  what 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        247 

were  the  important  elements  and  qualities  both  in  the 
individual  characters  of  these  men,  and  in  the  solemn 
and  intimate  bond  of  connection  that  held  them  to- 
gether,— in  reference,  always,  to  their  fitness  or  unfit- 
ness  as  a  vehicle  for  the  transfer  of  the  religion  and 
civilization  of  the  old  to  the  new  world,  and  in  refer- 
ence also  to  the  nature  of  the  institutions  of  which  they 
were  suited  to  become  the  founders. 

In  the  first  place,  these  emigrants  were  drawn  from 
the  bosom  of  the  English  people,  in  distinction  from 
the  court,  the  nobility,  the  gentry,  the  learned  profes- 
sions;— their  condition  in  life  was  ordinary,  alike  re- 
moved from  the  enervation  of  wealth  and  the  servility 
of  poverty,  and  having  all  the  independence  which  be- 
longs to  intelligent  and  laborious  industry; — they  were, 
in  the  main,  a  rural  and  agricultural  people,  and  of  the 
sober,  reflective,  self-dependent  temper  which  such  pur- 
suits cherish ;  their  condition,  as  among  themselves,  was 
equal;  they  stood  together  in  their  common  manhood, 
undistinguished,  save  only  by  those  differences  which 
intellect,  and  character,  and  culture,  make  among  men. 

In  the  second  place,  they  had  all  the  instruction  and 
experience  in  personal  rights  and  their  enjoyment, 
which  even  at  that  day  distinguished  the  condition  of 
Englishmen,  and,  outside  of  any  special  pressure  of  the 
Government  in  particular  matters  of  state  or  church 
policy,  were  a  large  and  valuable  possession  to  the  peo- 
ple of  England.  They  might  be  oppressed  by  cruel, 
unjust  or  impious  laws,  but  had  important  and,  in  gen- 
eral, efficient  guaranties  against  oppression  in  violation 
of  law.  A  common  law,  being  nothing  else  than  the 
adaptation  of  the  immutable  principles  of  general  jus- 
tice and  common  right  to  the  ever-varying  circum- 
stances of  human  affairs,  the  public  administration  of 
justice,  a  participation  as  jurors  in  such  administration, 


248  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

security  by  the  habeas  corpus  against  illegal  restraint, 
an  inviolable  threshold,  and  a  representation  in  the 
Commons  which  controlled  the  supplies, — these  were 
some  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen  in  which  the  Puritan 
emigrants  possessed  a  share. 

But  the  traits  which  most  command  our  attention, 
both  from  intrinsic  dignity  and  the  absorbing  influ- 
ence on  their  conduct,  are  the  depth  of  their  religious 
convictions,  the  purity  of  their  religious  sentiments, 
and  the  fervor  of  their  Christian  faith.  If  our  Puri- 
tan forefathers  in  civil  station  and  worldly  estate 
ranked  among  the  common  people  of  England,  the  dis- 
dain of  courtiers  and  the  scorn  of  prelates,  they  seemed 
to  themselves  children  of  a  nobler  lineage,  and  conse- 
crated of  an  elder  priesthood  than  those  who  despised 
them.  To  them  religion  and  its  laws  of  worth  and  dig- 
nity were  not  only  realities,  but  the  sole  realities ;  Chris- 
tianity was  not  only  true,  but  its  spirit  and  its  precepts 
were  the  all-sufficient  guide  and  rule  of  life;  God  they 
not  only  revered,  with  a  distant  awe,  as  the  Creator  of 
the  world  and  the  Ruler  of  events,  but  in  the  boldness 
of  a  filial  adoption  confided  in  him  as  the  Father  of  their 
spirits,  the  watchful  Protector  of  their  daily  walk; 
wealth  in  earthly  possessions,  power  in  temporal  sway, 
they  counted  as  nothing  beside  the  riches  and  the  glo- 
ries of  the  spiritual  kingdom;  the  pride  of  life,  the 
pleasures  of  sense,  all  pomp  and  magnificence  seemed 
but  dust  and  ashes  to  the  substantial  joys  and  effulgent 
splendors  of  the  spiritual  life.  Not  less  was  the  indif- 
ference to  the  toils  and  hardships,  the  sufferings,  pri- 
vations and  afflictions  of  the  present  time,  begotten  by 
the  high  hopes  and  sure  rewards  of  their  vivid  faith. 
The  enemies  that  they  dreaded  were  the  enemies  of 
their  souls,  the  encounters  to  them  most  formidable  were 
with  the  great  adversary,  the  evils  they  feared  were 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        249 

the  frailty  and  the  wickedness  of  their  own  natures, 
the  victories  they  aimed  at  were  over  temptation  and 
sin,  the  conquest  they  strove  for  was  over  their  own 
spirits. 

In  an  age  when  faith  has  grown  colder,  when  reli- 
gion is  much  less  a  matter  of  public  and  general  thought, 
when  outward  and  ostensible  enterprises  for  the  moral 
and  spiritual  advancement  of  man  attract  and  absorb 
whatever  activity  is  spared  from  purely  worldly  pur- 
suits, these  elevations  of  spirit  seem,  to  many,  incon- 
sistent with  the  calm  and  sober  performance  of  duty 
which  marked  the  conduct  of  these  men.  Some  stig- 
matize them  as  the  vagaries  of  a  vulgar  fanaticism, 
others  pardon  them  as  the  extravagancies  of  a  gener- 
ous enthusiasm,  but  we  acknowledge  them  as  an  essen- 
tial element  in  the  agencies  which  were  to  operate  great 
social  and  political  revolutions  at  home,  and  found  and 
build  up  a  great  nation  abroad. 

Passing  from  this  brief  and  imperfect  examination 
of  the  character  of  these  emigrants  themselves,  mark 
now  the  peculiar  association  in  which  they  were  united, 
and  in  which  they  were  to  leave  their  native  land  and 
ultimately  to  seek  these  shores.  It  was  an  independent, 
isolated,  Christian  Church,  part  of  no  establishment, 
subordinate  to  no  hierarchy,  and  having  no  relations 
outside  of  itself.  I  propose  no  observations,  mystical 
or  ecclesiastical,  concerning  it  as  a  church,  but  simply 
a  consideration  of  the  principles  on  which  its  forma- 
tion as  a  social  unit  rested,  and  in  reference  to  its  con- 
vertibility, when  need  should  be,  into  an  independent 
community  and  complete  body  politic. 

And  first  we  notice  that  this  community  was  organ- 
ized, as  its  fundamental  discrimination  from  the  system 
of  prelacy,  upon  the  notion  that  the  members  were  the 
source  and  depository  of  all  power,  that  by  their  elec- 


250  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

tion  all  offices  were  to  be  filled,  and  that  the  suffrage 
was  equal  and  universal. 

We  next  observe  that  the  tie  which  bound  the  mem- 
bers together  had  no  reference  to  selfish  interests  or 
the  pursuit  of  gain,  but  was  that  of  brotherhood,  and 
for  the  culture  of  their  higher  nature  and  the  promo- 
tion of  their  supreme  welfare.  Mutual  support  and  aid, 
counsel,  sympathy,  a  bearing  of  each  other's  burdens, 
a  participation  in  each  other's  joys  and  sorrows,  con- 
flicts and  triumphs,  were  the  right  and  the  duty  of  each 
in  respect  to  all. 

Add  to  this,  that  this  union  was  permanent,  that  it 
embraced  the  family  as  well  as  the  individual;  that  it 
presupposed  concert  and  consent  as  to  the  objects  and 
ends  of  life ;  that  it  ever  confirmed  and  constantly  cher- 
ished unity  of  purpose;  that  it  involved  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  each  by  all  in  the  most  sincere  and 
intimate  sense;  and  that  around  all  was  thrown  the 
solemn  sanction  of  divine  authority,  and  you  have  a 
little  community  with  more  of  the  true  social  spirit  to 
hold  it  together,  and  less  chance  or  scope  for  the  opera- 
tion of  selfish  discords  to  weaken  or  dissolve  it,  than 
ever  has  been  or  ever  can  be,  otherwise  constituted. 

To  this  Puritan  congregation  the  cruel  alternative 
was  soon  presented,  between  expatriation  and  abandon- 
ment of  their  religious  worship;  for  to  this  pitch  had 
the  civil  power  pushed  its  persecutions.  They  chose 
to  turn  their  backs  upon  their  homes  and  their  posses- 
sions, and,  to  use  their  own  language,  "by  joint  con- 
sent they  resolved  to  go  to  the  low  countries,  where 
they  heard  was  freedom  of  religion  to  all  men."  For 
twelve  years,  in  patient,  though  ungrateful  toil,  in  oc- 
cupations unfamiliar  and  uncongenial,  amid  a  crowded 
population,  speaking  a  foreign  tongue,  and  with  cus- 
toms strange  to  their  English  notions,  they  led  an  hon- 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        251 

est  life  and  maintained  their  religious  worship.  They 
have  left  a  record  of  the  reasons  and  the  influences 
which  induced  them  to  leave  Holland  and  seek  the  re- 
mote, unpeopled  wilderness  within  the  nominal  sover- 
eignty of  England.  It  is  quite  apparent  from  a  perusal 
of  their  own  statements,  that  on  leaving  England  they 
had  no  other  view  than  a  peaceable  life  with  the  enjoy- 
ment of  religious  liberty,  looking  no  further;  that  as 
they  advanced  in  years  and  their  children  grew  up 
around  them,  the  probable  fortunes  of  their  posterity 
were  forced  upon  their  attention.  They  foresaw  that 
their  individuality  and  nationality,  their  language,  the 
very  religion  which  was  dearer  than  life  or  country  to 
them,  would  be  swallowed  up  in  the  general  population 
of  Holland.  For  themselves,  they  would  have  cared 
little  whether  their  short  sojourn  before  they  were  re- 
moved to  "heaven,  their  dearest  country,"  were  in  one 
place  or  another;  but  for  their  children  and  later  pos- 
terity they  desired  the  birthright  of  Englishmen,  and 
for  the  pure  and  primitive  forms  of  Christianity  which 
they  possessed,  and  at  so  costly  sacrifice  had  preserved, 
they  sought  a  permanent  establishment  and  a  wider 
diffusion. 

Under  these  impulses,  led  by  these  motives,  to  enjoy 
liberty  of  conscience  and  pure  scriptural  worship,  to 
enlarge  his  majesty's  dominions  and  advance  the  king- 
dom of  Christ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  found  a  new  so- 
ciety where  the  Christian  religion  and  English  law 
should  prevail,  religious  liberty  flourish  and  a  pure 
faith  be  preserved,  our  Pilgrim  fathers  projected  and 
accomplished  the  perilous  passage  of  the  wide  ocean, 
braved  the  unknown  dangers  of  a  wilderness,  and  on 
this  day,  two  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  ago,  landed 
on  the  Rock  of  Plymouth.  Thus  did  they,  with  a  true 
filial  devotion,  cling  to  the  skirts  of  the  ungracious 


252  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

mother  from  whose  bosom  they  had  been  so  rudely  re- 
pelled, and  thus  did  the  stone,  which  the  builders  of 
English  liberty,  and  English  law,  and  English  power, 
rejected,  become  the  head  of  the  corner  of  our  consti- 
tuted state. 

Well  might  Milton,  the  brightest  star  in  the  firma- 
ment of  English,  no  less  than  of  Puritan,  literature, 
mourn  the  great  loss  to  England  from  this  emigration, 
led  by  the  Pilgrims,  and  closely  followed  by  so  much 
of  the  worth  and  strength  of  the  nation,  and  sadly  fore- 
bode for  the  fortunes  of  the  parent  state  thus  bereaved. 
"What  numbers  of  faithful  and  free-born  Englishmen 
and  good  Christians  have  been  constrained  to  forsake 
their  dearest  home,  their  friends  and  kindred,  whom 
nothing  but  the  wide  ocean  and  the  savage  deserts  of 
America  could  hide  and  shelter  from  the  fury  of  the 
bishops.  Oh,  if  we  could  but  see  the  shape  of  our  dear 
mother  England,  as  poets  are  wont  to  give  a  personal 
form  to  what  they  please,  how  would  she  appear,  think 
ye,  but  in  a  mourning  weed,  with  ashes  upon  her  head, 
and  tears  abundantly  flowing  from  her  eyes,  to  behold 
so  many  of  her  children  exposed  at  once,  and  thrust 
from  things  of  dearest  necessity,  because  their  con- 
science could  not  assent  to  things  which  the  bishops 
thought  indifferent?  Let  the  astrologers  be  dismayed 
at  the  portentous  blaze  of  comets  and  impressions  in 
the  air,  as  foretelling  troubles  and  changes  to  states; 
I  shall  believe  there  cannot  be  a  more  ill-boding  sign  to 
a  nation  (God  turn  the  omen  from  us !)  than  when  the 
inhabitants,  to  avoid  insufferable  grievances  at  home, 
are  enforced  by  heaps  to  leave  their  native  country." 

It  has  been  the  custom  of  poets,  of  orators,  and  of 
historians,  as  they  looked  upon  this  little  fragment  of 
population, — torn  from  the  bosom  of  a  powerful  state, 
driven  from  the  shelter  of  established  law,  outcast  from 


WILLIAM   MAXWELL  EVARTS        253 

the  civilization  of  the  world,  thrust,  as  it  were,  un- 
armed and  naked  into  a  fierce  struggle  with  rigorous, 
inexorable  nature, — to  pity  its  weakness,  deplore  its 
trials,  and  despair  of  its  fate.  If  the  view  be  confined 
to  the  mere  outward  aspect  of  the  scene  and  the  actors, 
if  you  omit  their  real  history  and  overlook  their  actual 
character  and  connection,  if  you  would  regard  them  as 
a  casual  group  thrown  on  the  shore  from  the  jaws 
of  shipwreck,  or  from  some  dire  social  convulsion,  the 
picture  of  feebleness,  of  misery,  of  hopelessness,  can 
scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

But,  unless  my  analysis  of  their  character  and  de- 
duction of  their  history  has  wholly  failed  of  its  pur- 
pose, we  cannot  resist  the  conviction  that,  as  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  community,  as  the  foundation  of  an 
original  and  separate  civil  society,  as  the  germ  and 
nucleus  of  an  independent  political  state,  this  band  of 
first  settlers  included  as  many  elements  and  guaranties 
of  strength,  of  safety,  and  of  growth,  as  lay  within  the 
whole  resources  of  human  nature,  or  could  be  added 
from  the  supports  of  a  divine  religion. 

All  the  traits  and  qualities  of  personal  manhood,  and 
in  as  large  measure  as,  before  or  since,  their  country- 
men or  ours  have  attained  to,  they  possessed;  the  at- 
tendance of  their  wives  and  children  carried  into  what- 
ever strange  wilderness  a  present  home,  and  stamped 
the  settlement  as  permanent,  not  fugitive;  they  were 
equipped  with  all  the  weaponry  of  substantial  educa- 
tion, furnished  with  sufficient  stores  of  ordinary  learn- 
ing, trained  in  a  discipline  of  practical  experience,  bet- 
ter than  proof  armor  in  the  warfare  they  were  to  wage. 

Nor  was  the  preparation  of  their  spirits  for  the  great 
undertaking  less  fit  and  sufficient.  As  they  did  not 
fear  death,  no  terror  could  frighten  them  from  their 
purpose;  as  they  did  not  love  pleasure,  no  present  pri- 


254  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

vations  could  appall  them,  no  sensual  attractions  allure 
them  back;  as  they  were  but  as  wayfarers  upon  the 
earth,  with  no  abiding-place,  pursuing  only  the  path  of 
duty,  wherever  they  pitched  their  moving  tent,  each 
setting  sun  would  find  them  "a  day's  march  nearer 
home." 

As  the  love  of  gain,  the  wild  spirit  of  adventure,  the 
lust  of  dominion,  had  no  share  in  bringing  them  across 
the  seas,  so  no  disappointments  or  discontents  of  a 
selfish  nature  could  enfeeble,  distract,  dissolve  their 
union ;  as  the  bonds  of  their  confederacy  were  spiritual 
and  immortal,  no  natural  afflictions  or  temporal  disas- 
ters could  absolve  the  reciprocal  duty,  or  break  the 
mutual  faith,  in  which  they  were  knit  together  as  the 
soul  of  one  man. 

Esteeming,  as  we  must,  that  our  Pilgrim  ancestors 
brought  to  these  shores  whatever  of  essential  strength 
there  was  in  the  civilization  which  they  left,  and  what- 
ever of  power  there  is  in  a  living  Christian  faith, — 
that  their  coming  was  absolutely  void  of  all  guileful 
purpose,  and  their  association  vital  in  every  part  with 
true  social  energy,  we  may  well  consider  the  laments 
at  the  feebleness,  and  distrusts  of  the  issue,  of  their 
enterprise,  as  more  fanciful  than  philosophical. 

What,  then,  though  their  numbers  were  few  and 
their  persons  ordinary :  what  though  the  dark  frown  of 
winter  hung  over  the  scene,  and  the  sad  cry  of  the  sor- 
rowing sea-birds,  and  the  perpetual  moan  of  the  vexed 
ocean,  breathed  around  them;  what  though  the  deeper 
shadow  of  death,  the  sadder  wail  of  the  dying  and  the 
bereaved  were  in  their  midst;  what  though  want  had 
possession  of  their  camp,  and  starvation  threatened  at 
their  outposts?  Strong  in  human  patience,  fortitude, 
courage  to  bear  or  to  remedy  whatever  it  was  in  human 
nature  to  endure,  or  in  human  power  to  cure,  and  for 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        255 

the  rest,  mightier  still  in  the  supports  of  their  sublime 
faith,  with  the  prophet's  fervor,  each  one  of  them  could 
exclaim,  "Although  the  fig-tree  shall  not  blossom,  nei- 
ther shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines;  the  labor  of  the  olive 
shall  fail,  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat;  the  flock 
shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold,  and  there  shall  be  no  herd 
in  the  stalls:  yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy 
in  the  God  of  my  salvation." 

Equally  propitious  to  the  beneficent  character  of  the 
institutions  they  were  to  build  up  was  it,  that,  while 
they  brought  with  them  such  amazing  elements  of  vigor 
and  freedom,  they  left  behind  them  almost  all  that  had 
deformed  and  burdened  the  development  of  the  state, 
and  all  the  incrustations  and  corruptions  that  had  over- 
laid the  Church  and  defiled  religion.  King,  nobles, 
gentry,  all  fixed  ranks,  all  prerogatives,  all  condescen- 
sions, all  servilities,  they  were  for  ever,  in  a  social  sense, 
delivered  from;  the  whole  hierarchy,  bishops  and 
priests,  canons  and  convocations,  courts  ecclesiastical 
and  high  commissions,  rites  and  ceremonies,  were  at 
once  thrown  off  and  utterly  ignored ;  all  that  could  as- 
sist, confirm,  enlarge  and  liberalize  society,  they  brought 
with  them,  unembarrassed  with  aught  that  could 
thwart,  trammel  or  impede  its  advancement. 

That  before  the  emigrants  left  Holland,  they  de- 
signed to  become  a  body  politic,  using  among  them- 
selves civil  government,  and  choosing  their  own  magis- 
trates ;  that  in  preparation  for  their  landing  they  made 
a  formal  compact  or  covenant  to  that  end,  and  that, 
without  break  or  interval  from  that  moment,  they  and 
their  descendants,  to  this  hour,  have  maintained  free 
government  (notwithstanding  it  was  so  long  colonial 
and  dependent)  ;  that  from  the  same  stock  their  num- 
bers were  supplied  and  increased,  and  that  from  the 
same  stock  and  under  the  same  lead  and  impulses,  the 


256  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Massachusetts  colony  was  founded;  that  the  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven  colonies  sprung  from  their  loins, 
while  that  of  Rhode  Island  grew  out  of  their  intoler- 
ance; and,  in  fine,  that  all  New  England,  as  it  has  been 
and  is,  grew  up,  as  naturally  as  the  oak  from  the  acorn, 
from  this  seed  planted  at  Plymouth,  I  need  only  to 
suggest. 

The  institutions  founded  by  the  fathers  of  New  Eng- 
land were  new  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  greatly  in  ad- 
vance of  whatever  past  experience  had  shown  possible 
in  human  condition;  the  civil  prudence  of  their  age 
regarded  them  but  as  the  experiments  of  the  model  and 
the  laboratory,  successful  only  by  exclusion  of  the  fric- 
tion and  disturbance  of  great  and  various  interests,  and 
by  shelter  from  the  stormy  elements  nursed  in  the 
bosom  of  every  large  society;  the  cold  eye  of  tyranny 
yet  watches  for  the  hour  when  the  heats  of  passion  shall 
dissolve,  or  the  frosts  of  selfishness  shall  crumble  their 
whole  fabric;  still,  their  foundations  stand  sure,  and 
their  dome  ascends  and  widens  in  ampler  and  ampler 
circles. 

But  the  spirit  of  liberty  is  no  new  impulse  in  human 
conduct,  no  new  agent  in  the  history  of  states  and 
nations ;  yet  it  is  generally  regarded  as  the  main  impulse 
in  the  action  of  our  forefathers,  which  is  without  a 
parallel, — as  the  effective  agent  in  their  constructive 
achievement,  which  is  without  a  precedent. 

The  truth  is,  with  our  Pilgrim  fathers  liberty  never 
was  valued  as  an  end,  though  as  a  means  to  duty  it  was 
worthier  than  all  other  possessions,  and  dearer  than 
life  itself.  Emancipation  from  existing  authority  they 
sought  only  to  subject  themselves  to  a  more  thorough 
discipline ;  loyalty  to  a  ruler  they  replaced  by  obedience 
to  law;  they  threw  off  the  yoke  of  their  king  only  to 
pursue  the  stricter  service  of  their  God.  They  cher- 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        257 

ished,  they  cultivated,  they  sheltered,  they  defended, 
they  watered  with  their  tears  and  with  their  blood,  the 
fair  flower  of  liberty,  but  only  that  they  might  feed 
upon  its  sober,  sometimes  its  bitter,  fruit,  duty. 

The  mere  passion  for  liberty  has  overthrown  many 
dynasties  and  torn  in  pieces  many  communities;  it  has 
an  immense  energy  to  upset  and  destroy;  but  here  its 
work  ends,  unless  it  be  attended  by  a  sound  conception 
and  faithful  acceptance  of  the  grand  constructive  ideas 
of  law  and  duty,  to  hold  up  the  tottering,  or  to  rebuild 
the  ruined,  state.  We  pronounce,  then,  that  the  high- 
est fidelity  to  law,  and  the  sincerest  devotion  to  duty, 
were  the  controlling  sentiments  of  our  ancestors  in  their 
walk  and  work. 

Nor  did  our  Puritan  fathers  teach,  either  by  lesson 
or  example,  that  all  men  are  capable  of  political  self- 
government.  Their  doctrine  and  their  practice  alike 
reject  such  folly,  and  give  this  as  the  demonstration 
and  the  truth,  that  men  capable  of  governing  themselves 
as  men,  are  able  to  maintain  a  free  civil  state  as  citi- 
zens. While  they  knew  that  a  strong  people  neither 
need,  nor  will  endure,  a  strong  government,  they  no 
less  knew  that  strength  must  be  somewhere,  in  people 
or  government,  to  hold  any  political  society  together, 
and  their  practical  politics  were  directed  by  this  con- 
viction. 

Nor  was  equality  of  right  in  the  citizens  relied  on 
as  an  adequate  social  principle  to  preserve  the  peace, 
and  advance  and  develope  the  power  of  the  common- 
wealth. That,  both  from  their  actual  temporal  condi- 
tion, and  from  their  religious  opinions,  equality  of  right 
would  be,  in  its  just  sense,  recognized  and  acted  upon, 
was  inevitable.  But  equality  of  right,  standing  alone, 
is  a  principle  eminently  dissocial,  and  paralyzing  to  all 
high  and  worthy  progress  of  the  general  welfare.  It 


258  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

may  answer  for  a  band  of  robbers  to  divide  their  spoils 
by,  or  victorious  barons  to  apportion  the  conquered 
land.  But  join  with  equality  of  right,  as  did  the  first 
planters  of  New  England,  community  of  interest  and 
reciprocity  of  duty,  as  the  controlling  sentiments,  and 
you  infuse  a  genuine  public  spirit,  and  evolve  a  strenu- 
ous social  activity,  which  will  never  weary  and  never 
fail ;  you  produce,  indeed,  the  efficient  causes  and  influ- 
ences which  have  animated  and  directed  the  immense 
expansion  of  American  society,  the  actual  development 
of  American  character. 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  observe,  from  the  very  ear- 
liest documents  of  the  emigration  and  settlement,  how 
well  the  necessity  and  the  grounds  of  a  true  public  spirit 
were  understood,  and  how  earnestly  they  were  insisted 
on.  In  their  letter  from  Leyden  to  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, Robinson  and  Brewster  thus  recite  one  of  the 
grounds  of  just  expectation  for  the  success  of  the  pro- 
jected community.  "We  are  knit  together  as  a  body  in 
a  more  strict  and  sacred  bond  and  covenant  of  the  Lord, 
of  the  violation  whereof  we  make  great  conscience; 
and  by  virtue  whereof  we  do  hold  ourselves  straitly 
tied  to  all  care  of  each  other's  good,  and  of  the  whole 
by  every,  and  so  mutual."  In  his  parting  letter  upon 
the  embarcation  Robinson  enjoins,  "a  thing  there  is 
carefully  to  be  provided  for,  to  wit,  that  with  your 
common  employments  you  join  common  affections, 
truly  bent  upon  the  general  good ;  avoiding,  as  a  deadly 
plague  of  your  both  common  and  special  comfort,  all 
retiredness  of  mind  for  proper  advantage,  and  all  sin- 
gularly affected  any  manner  of  way.  Let  every  man 
repress  in  himself  and  the  whole  body  in  each  person, 
as  so  many  rebels  against  the  common  good,  all  pri- 
vate respects  of  men's  selves,  not  sorting  with  the  gen- 
eral conveniency."  And  thus  Cushman  exhorts  the 


WILLIAM   MAXWELL  EVARTS        259 

whole  society,  just  a  year  after  the  landing:  "Now, 
brethren,  I  pray  you  remember  yourselves,  and  know 
that  you  are  not  in  a  retired  monastical  course,  but  have 
given  your  names  and  promises  one  to  another  and 
covenanted  here  to  cleave  together  in  the  service  of 
God  and  the  king.  What  then  must  you  do?  May  you 
live  as  retired  hermits  and  look  after  nobody?  Nay, 
you  must  seek  still  the  wealth  of  one  another,  and  in- 
quire as  David,  How  liveth  such  a  man — How  is  he 
clad — How  is  he  fed  ?  He  is  my  brother,  my  associate ; 
we  ventured  our  lives  together  here  and  had  a  hard 
brunt  of  it;  and  we  are  in  league  together.  Is  his 
labor  harder  than  mine?  Surely  I  will  ease  him. 
Hath  he  no  bed  to  lie  on?  Why,  I  have  two;  I'll  lend 
him  one.  Hath  he  no  apparel?  Why,  I  have  two 
suits;  I  will  give  him  one  of  them.  Eats  he  coarse 
fare,  bread  and  water,  and  I  have  better  ?  Why,  surely 
we  will  part  stakes.  He  is  as  good  a  man  as  I,  and 
we  are  bound  to  each  other;  so  that  his  wants  must  be 
my  wants,  his  sorrows  my  sorrows,  his  sickness  my 
sickness,  and  his  welfare  my  welfare;  for  I  am  as  he  is. 
And  such  a  sweet  sympathy  were  excellent,  comfort- 
able, yea,  heavenly,  and  is  the  only  maker  and  conseruer 
of  churches  and  commonwealths;  and  where  this  is 
wanting  ruin  comes  on  quickly."  Such  was  their  tem- 
per, such  their  intelligence,  such  their  wisdom.  So 
long  as  such  sentiments  pervade  a  community,  it  will 
feel  no  lack  of  public  spirit,  suffer  no  decay  of  public 
virtue. 

Add  to  these  principles,  what  is  not  so  much  a  sepa- 
rate principle  as  a  comprehensive  truth,  lying  at  the 
bottom  of  the  whole  enterprise,  that  the  state  and  the 
church  were  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  priest — that  the  culture  and  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  members  of  society,  and  not  the 


260  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

grandeur  or  glory  of  the  body  politic,  were  the  supe- 
rior and  controlling  objects — and  that  such  culture 
and  development  should  be  religious  and  for  the  immor- 
tal life,  and  you  have  all  the  constituent  elements  and 
forces  included  in  The  Puritan  Commonwealth. 

And  they  were  ample  and  adequate,  and  thus  far 
have  been  so  proved;  for  the  days  of  small  things  and 
for  the  most  magnificent  expansion;  for  all  the  shocks 
and  dangers  that  have  beset  the  feeble  plantations,  the 
growing  colonies,  the  heroic  confederation,  the  united 
people.  Nor  has  as  yet  appeared  any  inherent  defect, 
or  incongruous  working  in  the  system,  which  demands 
or  threatens  change.  Radicalism  cannot  dig  below  its 
foundations,  for  it  rests  upon  the  deepest  principles  of 
our  nature;  philanthropy  can  build  out  no  wider,  for 
it  recognizes  the  brotherhood  of  all  men;  enthusiasm 
can  mount  no  higher,  for  it  rises  to  the  very  threshold 
of  heaven.  No  further  strength  or  firmer  stability  can 
be  added  to  it,  for  faith  among  men,  "which  holds  the 
moral  elements  of  the  world  together,"  and  faith  in 
God,  which  binds  that  world  to  his  throne,  give  it  its 
cohesion  and  its  poise. 

Some  question  has  been  made,  where  the  Puritan 
emigrants  learned,  and  whence  they  derived,  the  great 
thoughts  of  equality  and  freedom,  so  far  in  advance  of 
the  English  liberty  of  that  day,  or  even  the  present, 
so  much  deeper,  and  purer,  and  nobler,  than  any 
then  existing  civilization  could  have  supplied.  One 
of  your  own  orators l  has  thought  to  trace  the  in- 
spiration, through  the  religious  exiles  of  Queen  Mary's 
reign,  who  found  at  Geneva  "a  state  without  a  king 
and  a  church  without  a  bishop,"  "backwards  from 
Switzerland  to  its  native  land  of  Greece;"  as  if  un- 
willing that  the  bright  flame  of  his  country's  freedom 
JMr.  Choate's  Oration,  1843. 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        261 

should  be  elsewhere  lighted,  than  at  those  same  undy- 
ing Grecian  fires  which  have  kindled  the  splendors  of 
his  own  eloquence.  I,  rather,  find  the  source  of  these 
divine  impulses  in  the  Christian  Scriptures,  whence  so 
much  else  of  the  Puritan  character  drew  its  nourish- 
ment, and  which  they  consulted  ever,  as  an  oracle,  with 
wrestling  and  with  prayer.  I  seem  to  see  in  the  mature 
designs  of  Him,  to  whom  a  thousand  years  are  but  as 
one  day,  who  moves  in  his  own  appointed  times,  and 
selects  and  prepares  his  own  instruments,  the  re-enact- 
ment of  the  first  scenes  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  in 
the  establishment  of  the  Christian  faith  upon  this  un- 
peopled continent — with  this  new  demonstration  and 
this  new  power  of  its  vital  energy,  as  well  for  the  re- 
construction of  all  human  institutions  as  for  the  regen- 
eration of  the  soul — and  hail  the  Pilgrim  fathers  as 
the  bearers  of  a  new  commission,  than  which  there  has 
been  none  greater  since  the  time  of  the  Apostles. 

Time,  and  your  patience,  fail  me  to  insist  upon  the 
penetrating  forecast  and  wide  sagacity,  the  vast  civil 
prudence  and  exhaustless  fidelity  with  which  our  fore- 
fathers sought,  upon  these  foundations,  to  rear  a  fabric 
of  liberty  and  law,  civilization  and  religion,  for  a  habi- 
tation to  their  posterity  to  the  latest  generation.  Yet 
I  must  observe  that  all  their  care  was  applied  directly 
to  the  people  at  large,  to  the  preservation  and  perpetu- 
ation of  intelligence,  virtue  and  piety  among  them ;  as- 
sured that,  from  this  support,  good  government  and 
free  government  were  of  as  certain  growth  in  the  moral 
constitution  of  things,  as  is  the  natural  harvest  from 
seed  well  sown  in  a  grateful  soil.  Accordingly,  they 
founded  a  system  of  common  education,  not  expecting 
to  make  the  whole  people  learned,  but  to  make  them  in- 
telligent, and  so  protect  them  from  that  oppression 
which  knowledge  can  practise  upon  ignorance;  they 


262  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

maintained  the  public  administration  of  justice,  and 
confined  it  to  the  common  law  system  and  procedure, 
not  anticipating  that  each  citizen  would  become  as  pro- 
found, or  as  erudite  in  his  special  science,  as  my  Lord 
Coke,  but  intending  that  common  right  and  practical 
justice  should  be  subserved,  and  not  defrauded,  by  all 
the  profundity  and  erudition  in  the  world;  they  em- 
ployed the  holy  Sabbath,  and  gave  it  full  measure  in 
the  division  of  the  week,  in  public  preaching,  exhorta- 
tion and  prayer;  not  as  a  ceremonial  expiation  or  a 
servile  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people,  but  for 
instruction  to  their  understandings  and  confirmation  of 
their  faith;  and  above  all,  the  Bible,  the  Bible  in  the 
family,  the  Bible  in  the  school,  the  Bible  in  the  church, 
was  kept  ever  under  the  eyes  and  in  the  ears  and  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people,  in  childhood,  in  manhood,  and 
in  age ;  for  Pope,  Prelate  and  Puritan  alike  agreed  that 
this  book  contained  the  oracles  of  their  religion,  and 
our  forefathers  knew,  by  impressive  experience,  that 
whichever,  Pope,  Prelate  or  People  had  the  keeping 
of  these  oracles,  held  the  keys  of  religious,  civil  and 
social  liberty. 

How,  from  these  never-failing  springs,  for  every  oc- 
casion of  the  advancing  communities,  both  civic  virtue 
and  martial  spirit  were  supplied;  how  as  early  as  1643 
the  four  New  England  colonies  framed  articles  of  con- 
federation, which  are  the  type  of  the  general  confeder- 
ation of  the  Revolution  and  of  the  Federal  Union ;  how 
in  the  Indian  wars  and  the  French  campaigns,  the 
warlike  vigor  of  the  people  was  developed  and  dis- 
ciplined; how  in  the  heroic  toils  and  sacrifices  of  the 
war  of  Independence,  and  in  the  wise  counsels  and  gen- 
erous conciliations  which  made  us  a  united  people,  New 
England  bore  an  unmeasured,  an  unstinted  share;  how 
on  the  tide  of  her  swelling  population  these  traits  of 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS        263 

her  founders  have  been  diffused  and  the  seeds  of  their 
institutions  disseminated,  why  should  I  relate?  They 
are  the  study  of  yourselves  and  of  your  children. 

Behold  now  in  these, — in  the  great  fame  of  the  Puri- 
tan exiles,  in  their  sublime  pilgrimage,  in  the  society 
they  founded,  in  the  States  they  built  up,  in  the  liberty 
and  the  law,  in  the  religion  and  the  civilization  they 
established, — behold  our  HERITAGE  from  them.  I  have 
made  no  mention  of  the  immense  territory  which  our 
country's  bounds  include,  but  I  have  shown  you  the 
price  at  which  it  was  all  purchased,  the  title  by  which 
it  is  all  held ;  I  have  not  counted  the  heaped  up  treasures 
of  your  wealth,  but  I  have  pointed  you  to  the  mine 
whence  it  was  all  digged,  to  the  fires  by  which  it  has  all 
been  refined;  I  have  not  followed  the  frequent  sails  of 
your  commerce  over  the  universal  sea,  but  I  have  shown 
you,  in  the  little  Mayflower,  the  forerunner  of  your  in- 
numerable fleet;  I  have  not  pictured  the  great  temple, 
which  from  generation  to  generation  has  been  raised, 
the  home  of  justice,  the  habitation  of  freedom,  the 
shrine  towards  which  the  hopes  of  all  nations  tend,  but 
I  have  explored  its  foundations  and  laid  bare  its  cor- 
ner-stone. This  vast  material  aggrandizement,  this 
imperial  height  of  position,  we  may  exult  in,  but  they 
do  not  distinguish  us  from  earlier,  and  now  ruined, 
states;  they  form  no  part  of  our  peculiar  inheritance. 
Green  grass  has  grown  beneath  the  tread  of  other  na- 
tions, and  for  them  the  vine  has  dropped  its  purple 
vintage,  and  the  fields  turned  up  their  golden  harvest ; 
nature  has  crowned  them  with  every  gift  of  plenty, 
and  labor  gained  for  them  overflowing  wealth;  un- 
counted population  has  filled  their  borders,  victorious 
arms  pushed  on  their  limits,  and  glorious  art,  and  noble 
literature,  and  a  splendid  worship  spread  over  all,  their 
graces  and  their  dignities;  but  justice  among  men,  the 


264  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

main  policy  of  all  civil  society,  and  faith  in  God,  its 
only  guaranty  of  permanence,  were  wanting  or  died 
out,  and  they  were  turned  under  by  the  ploughshare  of 
Time  to  feed  a  nobler  growth. 

As  we  value  this  heritage  which  we  have  thus  re- 
ceived, as  we  are  penetrated  with  wonder  and  gratitude 
at  the  costly  sacrifices  and  heroic  labors  of  our  ances- 
tors, by  which  it  has  been  acquired  for  us;  as  in  each 
preceding  generation  we  observe  no  unworthy  defec- 
tion from  the  original  stock,  no  waste  of  the  rich  pos- 
session, but  ever  its  jealous  protection,  its  generous 
increase,  so  do  we  feel  an  immeasurable  obligation  to 
transmit  this  heritage  unimpaired,  and  yet  ampler,  to 
our  posterity,  to  maintain  unbroken  the  worth  and 
honor  which  hitherto  have  marked  their  lineage.  This 
obligation  can  only  be  fulfilled  by  imitating  the  wisdom 
of  our  fathers,  by  observing  the  maxims  of  their  pol- 
icy, studying  the  true  spirit  of  their  institutions,  and 
acting,  in  our  day,  and  in  our  circumstances,  with  the 
same  devotion  to  principle,  the  same  fidelity  to  duty. 
If  we  neglect  this,  if  we  run  wild  in  the  enjoyment  of 
the  great  inheritance,  if  we  grow  arrogant  in  our  pros- 
perity, and  cruel  in  our  power,  if  we  come  to  confound 
freedom  in  religion  with  freedom  from  religion,  and 
independence  by  law  with  independence  of  law.,  if  we 
substitute  for  a  public  spirit  a  respect  to  private  advan- 
tage, if  we  run  from  all  civil  duties,  and  desert  all  social 
obligations,  if  we  make  our  highest  conservatism  the 
taking  care  of  ourselves,  our  shame  and  our  disaster 
will  alike  be  signal. 

Nor,  if  we  will  rightly  consider  the  aspect  of  our 
times,  and  justly  estimate  the  great  conflicting  social 
forces  at  work  in  the  nation,  shall  we  lack  for  noble 
incentives  to  follow  in  the  bright  pathway  of  duty  in 


WILLIAM   MAXWELL  EVARTS        265 

which  our  fathers  led,  nor  for  great  objects  to  aim  at 
and  accomplish.  While  we  rejoice  that  from  no  pecu- 
liar institutions  of  New  England  does  occasion  of  dis- 
content or  disquietude  arise,  to  vex  the  public  con- 
science, or  disturb  the  public  serenity;  that  the  evils  and 
dangers  of  ignorance  and  sloth  are  imbedded  in  no 
masses  of  her  population,  local  or  derivative;  that  not 
for  her  children  are  borne  our  heavy  burdens  of  pauper- 
ism and  crime;  let  us  no  less  rejoice  that,  clogged  by 
no  impediment  and  exhausted  by  no  feebleness  of  her 
own,  all  the  energies  of  New  England  may  be  devoted 
to  succor  and  sustain  at  every  point  of  weakness,  all 
her  power  to  uphold  and  confirm  every  element  of 
strength,  in  whatever  region  of  our  common  country,  in 
whatever  portion  of  her  various  population. 

Guided  by  the  same  high  motives,  imbued  with  the 
same  deep  wisdom,  warmed  with  the  same  faithful 
spirit  as  were  our  ancestors,  what  social  evil  is  there  so 
great  as  shall  withstand  us,  what  public  peril  so  dark  as 
shall  dismay  us?  Men  born  in  the  lifetime  of  Mary 
Allerton,  the  last  survivor  of  the  Mayflower's  company, 
lived  through  the  Revolution;  men  born  before  the 
Revolution  still  live.  Of  the  hundred  and  one  persons 
who  landed  from  the  Mayflower,  one  half  were  buried 
by  early  spring;  yet  now  the  blood  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritans  beats  in  the  hearts  of  more  than  seven 
millions  of  our  countrymen.  The  slow  and  narrow 
influences  of  personal  example  and  of  public  speech,  by 
which  alone,  in  the  days  of  the  early  settlement,  were 
all  social  impressions  made  and  diffused,  are  now  re- 
placed by  a  thousand  rapid  agencies  by  which  public 
opinion  is  formed  and  circulated.  Population  seems 
no  longer  local  and  stationary,  but  ever  more  and  more 
migratory,  intermingled  and  transfused;  and,  if  the 


266  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

virtue  and  the  power,  to  which  to-day  we  pay  our 
homage,  survive  in  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  doubt  not 
their  influences  will  soon  penetrate  and  pervade  the 
whole  general  mass  of  society  throughout  the  nation; 
fear  not  but  that  equality  of  right,  community  of  in- 
terest, reciprocity  of  duty  will  bind  this  whole  people 
together  in  a  perfect,  a  perpetual  union. 


ORATION 

« 
OLIVER  WENDELL   HOLMES,  M.D. 

THE  PILGRIMS  OF  PLYMOUTH 

* 
JOHN   PIERPONT,  D.D. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES 
(1807-1897.) 


JOHN   PIERPONT 
(1785-1866.) 

THE  orator  of  1855,  belonging  to  the  present  as  fully  as  to  the 
past,  needs  no  introduction.  This  year  the  society  returned  to 
its  early  custom,  and  a  poem  formed  a  part  of  the  program. 
Dr.  John  Pierpont,  the  poet  of  the  occasion,  was  born  in 
Litchfield,  Connecticut.  He  studied  law,  but  later  entered  the 
ministry  and  united  with  the  Unitarian  denomination.  His 
poems  were  widely  known,  especially  his  occasional  pieces. 

The  political  element  had  naturally  entered  largely  of  late  into 
the  literary  exercises  of  the  society.  Almost  any  political  creed 
might  have  found  satisfaction  in  this  celebration  at  the  Church 
of  the  Puritans.  The  verses  of  Dr.  Pierpont,  though  he  was 
then  over  seventy  years  of  age,  would  have  been  quoted  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  youngest  and  wildest  Abolitionist,  while 
Dr.  Holmes,  his  junior  by  thirty  years,  stood  frankly  for  the 
most  conservative  element  of  the  North.  One  sentiment  of  the 
orator  in  regard  to  slavery  was  met  with  a  hiss,  to  which  inci- 
dent Dr.  Pierpont  referred  at  the  dinner  the  following  evening. 

"I  have  prepared,"  he  said,  "some  lines,  should  it  ever  occur 
again,  which  would  run  somewhat  in  the  following  fashion: 

"Our  brother  Holmes's  gadfly  was  a  thing 
To  lo  known  by  its  tormenting  sting. 
The  noisome  insect  still  is  known  by  this, 
But  geese  and  serpents  by  their  harmless  hiss." 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          269 
Dr.  Holmes,  rising,  instantly  replied: 

"Well  said,  my  trusty  brother,  bravely  done. 
Sit  down,  good  neighbor,  now  1  owe  you  one." 

Dr.  Holmes  also  recited  at  this  dinner  the  following  verses : 

"New  England,  we  love  thee;  no  time  can  erase 
From  the  hearts  of  thy  children,  the  smile  on  thy  face. 
'T  is  the  mother's  fond  look  of  affection  and  pride, 
As  she  gives  her  fair  son  to  the  arms  of  his  bride. 

"His  bride  may  be  fresher  in  beauty's  young  flower; 
She  may  blaze  in  the  jewels  she  brings  with  her  dower. 
But  passion  must  chill  in  Time's  pitiless  blast; 
The  one  that  first  loved  us  will  love  to  the  last. 

"You  have  left  the  dear  land  of  the  lake  and  the  hill, 
But  its  winds  and  its  waters  will  talk  with  you  still. 
'Forget  not,'  they  whisper,  'your  love  is  our  debt,' 
And  echo  breathes  softly,  'We  never  forget.' 

"The  banquet's  gay  splendors  are  gleaming  around, 
But  your  hearts  have  flown  back  o'er  the  waves  of  the  Sound ; 
They  have  found  the  brown  home  where  their  pulses  were  born ; 
They  are  throbbing  their  way  through  the  trees  and  the  corn. 

"There  are  roofs  you  remember — their  glory  is  fled ; 
There  are  mounds  in  the  churchyard — one  sigh  for  the  dead. 
There  are  wrecks,  there  are  ruins,  all  scattered  around ; 
But  Earth  has  no  spot  like  that  corner  of  ground. 

"Come,  let  us  be  cheerful ;  we  scolded  last  night, 
And  they  cheered  us,  and — never  mind — meant  it  all  right 
To-night,  we  harm  nothing — we  love  in  the  lump ; 
Here  's  a  bumper  to  Maine,  in  the  juice  of  the  pump! 

"Here  's  to  all  the  good  people,  wherever  they  be, 
That  have  grown  in  the  shade  of  the  liberty  tree; 
We  all  love  its  leaves,  and  its  blossoms,  and  fruit, 
But  pray  have  a  care  of  the  fence  round  its  root. 


NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

"We  should  like  to  talk  big ;  it  's  a  kind  of  a  right, 
When  the  tongue  has  got  loose  as  the  waistband  grew  tight; 
But,  as  pretty  Miss  Prudence  remarked  to  her  beau, 
On  its  own  heap  of  compost  no  biddy  should  crow. 

"Enough  1    There  are  gentlemen  waiting  to  talk, 
Whose  words  are  to  mine  as  the  flower  to  the  stalk. 
Stand  by  your  old  mother  whatever  befall; 
God  bless  all  her  children !    Good  night  to  you  all  1" 


ORATION 


WE  have  come  together  into  the  inner  circle  of  a 
triple  cordon  which  surrounds  us  with  its  har- 
monious parallels.  As  members  of  a  great  Republic, 
gathered  to  speak  with  the  freedom  it  gives  to  all,  of 
the  dead  and  of  the  past ;  if  we  choose,  too,  of  the  living 
and  of  the  present;  we  pass  the  outer  circle,  and  the 
folds  of  the  national  ensign  overshadow'  us  as  Ameri- 
cans. As  citizens  or  guests  of  a  great  metropolis,  we 
cross  the  second  line,  feeling  that  the  heart  of  the  vast 
city  is  large  enough  to  hold  us  with  all  our  old  loves 
and  recollections,  without  jealousy — nay,  rather  with 
pride — that  it  could  win  and  keep  so  many  of  us  away 
from  our  birth-place.  As  children  of  a  common  de- 
scent, we  enter  the  innermost  ring  of  all,  and  clasp  each 
other's  hands,  and  exchange  those  looks  and  words  that 
flash  out  in  a  glance,  or  an  accent,  the  welcome  which 
has  in  it  a  whole  family-Bible  full  of  cousinships  and 
brotherhoods. 

We  hold  ourselves  thrice  happy  that  each  of  these 
concentric  circles  helps  to  limit  and  define  the  vague 
affections  of  our  common  humanity.  Let  us  not  lose 
sight  of  the  great  ring  that  embraces  all  the  others. 
Poor  and  provincial  indeed  is  every  gathering  within 
the  bounds  of  the  wide  Republic  which  does  not  re- 
member that  it  is  first  of  all  a  meeting  of  Americans. 
It  were  ungrateful  to  forget  the  privileges  and  pleasures 

271 


272  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

with  which  the  stately  city  surrounds  its  permanent 
and  transient  guests;  none  ever  forget  its  hospitalities 
but  those  who  administer  them.  But  for  the  closer 
and  narrower  area  into  which  we  have  crowded  to-day, 
leaving  the  busy  world  outside  of  its  charmed  cir- 
cumference, we  may  naturally  wish  to  speak  a  word  of 
explanation. 

We  meet  as  a  family  meets,  because  blood  will  have 
its  own  affinities,  and  draw  men  together  out  of  the 
mass  with  which  they  are  mingled.  There  is  iron  in 
it,  the  chemists  tell  us;  there  is  magnetism  at  any  rate. 
So  feel  the  stout  Englishmen  when  they  come  together 
and  make  the  roofs  of  your  dining  halls  echo  to  "God 
Save  the  Queen;"  so  feel  the  keen  Scotchmen  when 
they  meet  to  sing  the  songs  of  Burns  over  the  pint 
stoup  that  follows  the  haggis;  so  feel  the  sons  of  St. 
David  when  they  unite  to  give  voice  to  their  patriotism 
in  strings  of  solid  consonants  which  only  Cambrian 
lips  can  utter;  so  feel  the  children  of  St.  Patrick  when 
they  do  honor  to  their  patron  saint,  with  all  the  over- 
flowing devotion  of  their  warm  and  joyous  nature. 
It  is  good  that  they  should  all  come  together  in  their 
several  places  and  times.  All  of  us  in  these  busy  days, 
and  this  busy  region,  live  little  enough  in  the  past  and 
the  distant;  it  is  well  to  keep  alive  all  that  is  left  of  a 
young  heart  in  the  bosoms  of  gray  exiles. 

We  Americans,  too,  like  these  subjects  of  Britain, 
have  our  distinct  families  under  the  general  roof  of  the 
common  country  which  protects  us  all.  Were  it  not 
so,  many  of  the  sympathies  of  our  nature  would  not  be 
called  out.  We  must  have  something  between  the 
vague  grandeur  of  the  mighty  Republic,  and  the  sharp 
localism  of  the  individual  State,  to  fit  a  certain  range 
of  our  affections.  Our  limited  affinities  have  already 
formed  groups  at  the  South,  and  in  the  West,  as  well 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          273 

as  in  the  East ;  they  determine  natural  lines  of  cleavage, 
like  the  invisible  seams  which  run  through  the  differ- 
ent planes  of  a  crystal. 

When  geographical  unity,  and  similar  modes  of  life, 
and  congenial  beliefs,  and  long  companionship  in  trial 
and  prosperity,  and  the  recollections  belonging  to  a 
common  descent,  all  coincide,  then  there  will  be  a  natu- 
ral family,  a  sub-nationality,  self-formed  in  the  heart  of 
the  larger  community  to  which  it  belongs.  And  all 
these  circumstances  unite  in  the  case  of  New  England. 

Look  at  her  geographically.  Her  domain  is  a  cor- 
ner cut  off  from  the  main  piece;  ample  enough,  were 
not  the  whole  so  vast  as  to  make  it  seem  little.  The 
ocean  opens  the  world  of  trade  to  her  eastern  border, 
but  shuts  off  all  immediate  relationships  on  that  side. 
An  alien  soil  skirts  her  on  the  north;  an  irregular 
mountain  barrier  slopes  its  glacis  along  her  western 
edge.  To  the  south,  Connecticut,  sitting  in  her  corner, 
puts  out  a  thumb,  as  it  were,  of  the  same  great  hand 
which  has  Cope  Cod  as  its  crooked  little  finger,  but 
without  reaching  the  prize  which  seems  to  tempt  the 
intruding  member.  All  over  this  naturally  isolated 
region  are  seen  the  same  general  features.  New  Eng- 
land is  long  and  lean.  The  gaunt  ranges  of  hills  run 
side  by  side  from  north  to  south,  like  ribs  that  hunger 
has  unclothed.  Here  and  there  are  other  huge  promi- 
nences that  summer  tries  in  vain  to  soften  with  her 
graceful  millinery.  Katahdin,  Monadnock,  Ascutney, 
Wachusett  and  Saddle-mountain  would  take  a  fatter 
diluvium  to  smooth  their  staring  protuberances  than 
ever  yet  swept  over  New  England.  In  the  grooves  of 
this  uneven  surface  run  a  hundred  rivers,  broad  or 
narrow  as  may  be,  but  for  the  most  part  shallow  and 
rapid.  They  were  made  for  active  toil,  rather  than  to 
be  the  passive  highways  of  navigation ;  few  of  them  are 


274  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

penetrated  many  miles  by  commerce ;  but  they  grind  the 
corn,  they  spin  the  wool  and  cotton,  they  forge  the 
iron,  they  cleave  the  great  timbers  which  come  from 
the  booms  that  gather  up  pines  and  hemlocks  as  the 
farmer's  rake  gathers  his  rye  or  barley.  A  few  narrow 
meadows,  mere  strips  between  the  hills,  have  something 
of  that  spontaneous  productiveness  which  makes  the 
broad  western  valleys  the  lap  of  the  world's  harvest; 
but  mainly,  the  soil  says,  as  plainly  as  mullen  and  sorrel 
can  talk,  "Work  or  starve." 

Out  of  these  conditions  springs  a  life  with  its  own 
distinctive  characters  for  good  and  evil ;  the  New  Eng- 
lander  is  a  man  by  himself;  a  pattern,  and  not  a  cast- 
ing. He  knows  his  fellow  wherever  he  meets  him,  by 
his  face,  his  speech,  his  habits,  and  his  mental  charac- 
ter. Whatever  differences  there  may  be  among  New 
Englanders,  they  agree  for  the  most  part  in  sturdy 
love  of  liberty,  in  thrifty  ways  of  life,  in  habits  of 
methodical  industry,  in  reverence  for  religion  and  edu- 
cation, and  in  respect  for  law.  Each  man  acts  always 
with  reference  to  a  social  organization  which  exists 
ready  formed  in  his  head.  There  are  heroes  among  the 
settlers  of  the  forest  who  have  a  more  magnificent  per- 
sonal independence  than  he,  but  none  that  carries  in 
his  mind  and  character  so  many  of  the  elements  that 
go  to  the  foundation  of  a  State.  In  claiming  these 
qualities  for  him,  it  is  not  implied  that  he  monopolizes 
these  or  any  other  virtues,  but  that  New  England  train- 
ing does  naturally  include  such  qualifications  as  a  part 
of  the  outfit  with  which  she  furnishes  her  emigrant 
children.  To  these  grounds  of  fellowship  and  sym- 
pathy must  be  added  the  immediate  family  ties  which 
bring  so  large  a  share  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  New 
England  States  into  more  or  less  near  relations  of  blood 
and  family  connection,  and  the  close  bands  that  have 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          275 

made  them  one  people  in  the  days  of  common  trial  and 
united  effort.  Add  to  all  this  the  one  fact  of  which 
this  day  will  never  cease  to  remind  the  New  Englander, 
wherever  its  sun  may  find  him,  that  he  claims  his  de- 
scent from  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  lineally  it  may 
be,  virtually  at  any  rate,  and  no  man  need  ask  more 
than  once  why  we  have  entered  that  third  circle  of  inti- 
mate communion,  which  is  narrower  than  the  common 
citizenship  that  belongs  to  most  of  us,  and  falls  far 
within  the  broad  zone  of  republican  Americanism  which 
includes  us  all. 

The  feeling  which  brings  us  together  is  one  which 
finds  its  full  expression  only  at  certain  appointed  sea- 
sons. Two  winter's  evenings  are  its  annual  flowering 
times;  but  its  roots  lie  deep  in  the  heart,  where  rever- 
ence for  truth,  for  courage,  for  faith  and  piety  have 
their  eternal  sources  of  life.  It  is  well  that  from  time 
to  time  these  primal  elements  in  our  moral  being,  these 
high  instincts  and  pure  affections,  which  are  overlaid 
or  forced  into  narrow  channels  by  the  relations  of  com- 
mon life,  should  come  forth  and  resume  their  true  di- 
mensions, and  assert  their  slumbering  supremacy. 

But  a  few  days  will  elapse  before  throughout  all 
Christendom  will  be  heard  the  sound  of  bells  and  the 
pealing  of  anthems;  the  congregations  of  the  faithful 
will  utter  their  united  voices  in  every  land ;  the  village 
churches  will  send  their  praise  up  to  Heaven  fragrant 
with  the  breath  of  pines  and  spruces;  the  huge  cathe- 
drals will  blow  all  their  organ-pipes  and  shiver  to 
their  crosses  with  melodious  thunders;  the  sands  of 
the  tropic  and  the  snows  of  the  frozen  north  will  be 
alike  imprinted  with  the  knees  of  barbarian  worship- 
pers; the  prisoner  will  clash  rude  music,  as  he  lifts  his 
fettered  hands  to  Heaven;  the  sentinel  will  lean  upon 
his  musket  and  send  a  prayer  upward  from  lips  yet 


276  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

trembling  with  the  oaths  of  battle.  Roll  off  these  win- 
try clouds ;  set  forward  the  index  of  the  celestial  horo- 
loge until  the  yellow  sun  of  July  stares  fierce  upon  its 
dial.  Throughout  this  broad  land  the  sky  shall  be 
filled  with  new  echoes  and  flame  with  unwonted  fires. 
No  hamlet  too  remote  to  be  reached  by  the  light  of 
flashing  rockets  and  the  crash  of  roaring  artillery.  In 
a  land  of  universal  education,  that  day  there  shall  be 
no  school;  in  a  land  of  industry,  that  day  there  shall 
be  no  toil.  Old  men  will  creep  out  to  look  upon  the 
crowds  and  the  banners ;  children  of  the  noisy  sex  will 
swarm  like  bees,  as  loud  and  as  dangerous  with  their 
licensed  weapons,  and  maidens  will  look  on  at  the  pa- 
geant, unconscious  that  all  they  see  is  less  than  what 
they  add  to  its  harmonious  contrasts. 

Thank  God  for  these  flowering  seasons  of  the  human 
heart!  Life  is  not  meant  to  be  all  stem  and  leaves; 
the  colors  of  Heaven  are  never  stamped  upon  these. 
Strike  out  the  festival  of  the  church  and  the  festival 
of  the  nation,  and  it  is  as  if  the  year  should  close  the 
two  eyes  with  which  it  looks  upon  all  that  is  best  worth 
seeing  above  and  below.  We  exist  by  toil  that  we  may 
live  by  thought  and  feeling;  all  labor  that  does  not  end 
in  nobler  thought  or  better  feeling  is  lost  to  its  highest 
end.  To  lift  us  out  of  our  labors  into  a  loftier  sphere, 
we  ring  the  Christmas  bells,  so  that  all  shall  hear  them, 
and  make  the  night  vocal  so  that  none  shall  slumber 
while  the  sun  is  climbing  up  the  east  to  shine  upon  our 
national  anniversary. 

And  now,  with  mingled  feelings  of  religious  awe, 
and  filial  piety — and  it  may  be  with  something  more 
of  family  pride  than  the  humble  Pilgrims  would  have 
approved — we  have  come  to  our  Feast  of  the  Pass- 
over— the  kindly  meeting  which  is  to  freshen  our  rec- 
ollections of  the  history  we  have  in  common,  and  make 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          277 

us  stronger  to  meet  the  duties  lying  before  us.  At 
such  a  time,  how  welcome  is  the  eloquence  which  illu- 
minates and  emblazons  the  chronicles  of  the  past  with 
its  pencil  dipped  in  fire!  How  welcome  is  the  learn- 
ing that  expands  and  illustrates  the  story  of  past  hero- 
ism and  clears  away  the  doubts  which  jealous  ages 
leave  upon  the  motives  of  all  who  shame  them  by  their 
actions!  It  has  often  been  your  privilege  to  listen  to 
eloquence  and  learning,  not  rarely  uttering  themselves 
through  the  same  lips.  But  the  dignity  of  the  hour 
does  not  depend  on  so  poor  a  contingency  as  your  choice 
of  a  speaker;  you  need  only  ask  of  him  sincerity  of 
purpose,  a  deep  reverence  for  the  past,  so  precious  to 
your  memories,  a  free  utterance  on  all  that  relates  to 
the  present,  without  violating  the  courtesies  becoming 
such  an  occasion,  and  if  it  may  be,  a  cheerful  and  en- 
couraging word  for  the  future,  to  which  the  past  and 
present  are  but  the  rude  scaffolding.  He  has  no  claim 
to  hold  you  very  long  who  has  not  had  many  long 
nights  to  search,  to  compare,  to  meditate  on  subjects  of 
study  and  thought  already  worn  and  rounded  as  the 
pebbles  on  the  shore  that  received  the  wandering  fa- 
thers of  New  England.  He  has  still  less  claim  to  let 
the  hour  overlap  its  circle  whose  heavier  task  is  to  be 
followed  by  the  resonant  cadences  and  graceful  harmo- 
nies of  song,  always  a  welcome  change  from  the  sober 
homeliness  of  prose;  and,  most  of  all,  when  the  lips 
that  are  to  speak  are  those  that  have  blended  their  ac- 
cents with  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims,  to  live  with  it 

"Till  the  waves  of  the  bay  where  the  Mayflower  lay, 
Shall  foam  and  freeze  no  more!" 

Let  us  divide  our  brief  time  between  the  recollec- 
tions we  owe  to  this  occasion  and  the  thoughts  they 


278  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

suggest  to  us,  as  we  stand  here  to-day  in  the  midst  of 
a  life  which  must  soon  turn  into  recollections,  to  be 
cherished  with  eternal  gratitude,  or  blasted  with  the 
condemnation  of  those  who  are  to  come  after  us. 

The  story  of  the  Pilgrims  may  be  told  for  a  thou- 
sand anniversaries,  and  the  next  year  it  will  be  fresh 
again.  There  are  sights  and  sounds  that  Nature,  with 
all  her  infinite  variety,  is  never  tired  of  repeating.  You 
will  find  the  wind-flower  blowing,  and  the  wood-thrush 
singing,  in  Plymouth  woods  still,  as  the  Indians  had 
known  them  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Mastodon.  We 
need  not  always  recount  all  the  names  on  the  sacred 
list,  nor  tell  the  sad,  brave  story  over,  in  all  its  deso- 
late grandeur  of  ideal  and  starving  misery  of  detail. 
But  the  picture,  sketched,  or  finished,  shall  always  be 
held  up;  if  it  is  only  for  a  moment,  we  will  lift  it  as 
the  Host  is  lifted  in  Romanist  processions,  and  rever- 
ently uncover  before  it.  The  story  it  tells  may  be  an 
old  one;  but  Christmas  will  tell  one  still  older;  and  the 
world  has  not  tired  of  Christmas  yet. 

No  scepticism  questions  the  motives  that  drove  the 
Pilgrims  to  Holland.  Men  do  not  emigrate  as  they 
did  to  a  land  of  aliens,  speaking  a  strange  tongue,  a 
land  full  already,  and  offering  them  no  temporal  ad- 
vantage, but  rather  endless  losses  and  sacrifices,  with- 
out some  dire  necessity.  The  story  of  their  attempted 
departure  and  arrest,  of  their  secret  embarkation  by 
night,  and  of  the  sullen  dismissal  of  their  wives  and 
children  at  last,  as  creatures  that  had  no  home  to  go  to, 
is  itself  an  eternal  witness  of  the  previous  martyrdom 
they  had  undergone  for  conscience  sake.  It  is  the 
death-struggle,  and  it  tells  of  the  death-blows  that  had 
gone  before  it.  This  pilgrimage  was  only  another 
stage  in  the  weary  exodus  of  the  Reformers,  however 
called,  that  had  begun  in  the  days  of  Mary.  Nor  did 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          279 

they  always  find  rest  where  they  had  sought  refuge. 
In  the  middle  of  the  preceding  century,  many  of  the 
exiles  of  Frankfort  had  become  twice  exiles,  you  re- 
member, rather  than  accept  King  Edward's  service- 
book  at  the  hands  of  the  future  Bishop  of  Ely.  Those 
forms  which  are  to  us  imposing,  venerable,  affecting, 
even  if  they  are  not  our  own  chosen  modes  of  worship, 
had  become  identified  with  the  tyranny  of  spiritual 
usurpers  in  the  minds  of  the  Puritans ;  the  advocates  of 
a  pure  and  simple  form  of  worship.  Rather  than  sub- 
mit to  have  these  observances  forced  upon  them,  they 
removed  to  Basle  and  to  Geneva. 

And  so  our  own  Pilgrims,  after  a  residence  in  Hol- 
land long  enough  to  have  naturalized  them  to  some  ex- 
tent, found  cause  to  remove  once  more  from  their 
adopted  home.  Where  should  they  go?  In  France, 
in  Flanders,  in  Germany,  in  Switzerland,  there  were 
places  where  they  might  serve  God  according  to  their 
own  faith;  but  what  else  would  they  find  there?  An- 
other alien  people,  another  new  language,  a  life  to 
begin  over  again,  a  loss  of  nationality,  a  hopeless  sepa- 
ration from  the  home  of  their  affections,  an  eternal 
exile,  without  even  the  sense  of  recognition  and  protec- 
tion which  keeps  alive  the  national  spirit  of  colonists. 
They  were  poor  men;  they  and  their  children  were  to 
live  by  manual  employments  mostly.  As  they  looked 
upon  their  countrymen  now  established  in  foreign 
lands,  for  more  than  two  generations,  they  saw  them 
gradually  melting  into  the  people  by  whom  they  were 
surrounded.  The  very  names  by  which  they  were 
called  had  become  transformed,  and  the  sturdy  insular 
blood  was  breeding  out  its  features,  to  become  merged 
in  that  of  the  laboring  masses  of  other  races. 

And  what  were  those  "manifold  temptations  of  the 
place"  of  which  the  Pilgrims  complained?  If  History 


280  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

does  not  tell  us,  Art  is  not  silent.  In  the  brutalities 
immortalized  in  all  their  shame  by  the  pencils  of  Teniers 
and  Adrian  Brauwer  and  Van  Ostade;  in  the  vulgari- 
ties which  stand  revealed  even  amidst  the  flashes  of 
Rembrandt's  startling  splendors ;  we  can  see  what  were 
the  temptations  to  which  they  shuddered  to  expose  their 
children,  the  sober  English  youth  and  the  chaste  Eng- 
lish maidens.  The  boors  that  sat  for  their  portraits  to 
the  Dutch  and  Flemish  painters  were  growing  up  by 
the  side  of  these  very  children.  Had  the  Puritans  not 
again  become  the  Pilgrims,  the  process  of  degradation 
for  many  among  them,  must  have  been  a  natural  and 
fatal  consequence.  Some  future  Carver  or  Bradford 
might  possibly  have  figured  on  canvas  as  a  ruffed  and 
shovel-hatted  burgomaster;  or  the  features  of  a  second 
Miles  Standish  have  graced  the  walls  of  the  Stadt- 
house  at  Amsterdam,  in  that  glorious  train-band,  the 
breathing  miracle  of  Vander-Helst.  But  how  many  of 
them  would  have  sunk  into  the  subjects  of  those  sordid 
interiors  where  the  pipe  and  the  mug  and  the  man  are 
equally  excellent  in  art,  and  equally  elevated  objects  of 
study,  we  may  guess,  if  we  take  the  census  of  the 
painted  magistrates  and  the  pictured  clowns,  and  reckon 
up  the  chances  that  an  operative's  son  should  become 
the  one  or  the  other ! 

Thus  we  need  not  seek  for  lower  motives  than  those 
which  they  themselves  alleged  as  the  cause  of  their 
desire  of  removing  from  Holland.  Nor  need  we  won- 
der that  they  preferred  to  found  a  new  English  State, 
one  in  which  their  language  and  nationality  might  be 
preserved,  rather  than  blend  themselves  with  the  for- 
eign people  of  any  continental  nation.  If  to  these  rea- 
sons were  added  some  impulses  arising  from  the  spirit 
of  adventure,  the  ambition  of  increasing  the  bounds  of 
the  British  Empire,  and  even  the  hope  of  profit,  it  only 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          281 

shows  that,  in  becoming  martyrs  they  had  not  ceased 
to  be  men;  and  that,  while  their  whole  course  proves 
that  they  were  ready  to  sacrifice  home,  comforts,  health 
and  life  to  principle,  they  had  the  sense  and  the  spirit 
which  make  other  colonists  the  heroes  of  story,  who 
have  no  pretence  to  the  higher  aims  which  governed 
all  other  considerations  with  the  Pilgrims. 

It  was  an  old  fable  that  lo,  beloved  of  Jupiter,  and 
changed  by  him  into  a  heifer,  to  hide  her  hated  beauty 
from  the  jealous  queen  of  Heaven,  was  driven  from  her 
still  meadow  by  the  persecutions  of  a  gad-fly,  sent  by 
her  legitimate  rival.  Stung  to  madness,  she  rushed 
forth,  restless,  far  wandering.  She  raged  through 
Scythia,  and  across  the  snowy  Caucasus,  and  over  the 
Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  the  same  just  ploughed  by 
the  twin  Armada  of  the  Allies ;  through  the  land  of  the 
one-eyed  Phorcides,  the  one-eyed  Arimaspians,  to  the 
cataracts  of  the  mysterious  Nile,  and  so  on  down  to  its 
city-strown  Delta.  Here  she  resumed  her  form;  she 
became  the  mother  of  a  line  of  kings,  and  was  enthroned 
among  the  divinities  as  the  Egyptian  Isis. 

In  this  story,  as  in  that  of  Europa,  we  see  the  gods 
called  in  to  account  for  the  colonization  of  ancient  races 
in  remote  regions.  Fantastic  as  sounds  the  conceit  of 
the  goaded  lo,  it  has  the  grandeur  almost  of  the  He- 
brew prophets  in  the  passionate  declamation  of  ^schy- 
lus,  as  through  her  lips  he  tells  the  story  of  wild  adven- 
ture by  sea  and  land.  Out  of  so  little  a  cause — the  bite 
of  a  teasing  insect — sprang  a  new  dynasty  of  earth, 
and  a  new  throne  in  the  courts  of  Heaven. 

There  are  gad-flies  with  broader  wings  and  longer 
stings,  that  the  gods — nay,  let  us  drop  our  heathen 
phrase — that  God  uses  to  drive  abroad  his  servants 
who  are  to  scatter  the  seeds  of  empire.  Out  of  the 
smouldering  passion  of  an  unloved  queen  and  a  child- 


282  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

less  wife  came  the  first  edict  that  stung  the  forefathers 
of  the  Pilgrims  into  exile.  Out  of  the  imperious  will 
of  an  unmastered  virgin  came  the  mandates  which 
alienated  the  Puritans  forever  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Out  of  the  conceit  and  arbitrary  insolence  of  the 
learned  fool  that  played  the  royal  school-master  for  the 
British  people,  came  the  impatient  and  petulant  orders 
that  drove  the  alienated  separatists  across  the  channel 
to  find  a  home  among  strangers;  a  home,  but  not  a 
final  resting  place;  for  Providence  stung  them  out  of 
this  retreat  that  its  larger  ends  might  be  fulfilled.  Say 
not  that  ancient  fable  is  more  trivial  than  modern  his- 
tory, when  the  passions  of  kings  and  queens,  aggra- 
vated by  all  the  little  personal  causes  that  make  men 
swear  and  women  scold,  and  both  grow  tyrannical,  are 
suffered  to  mingle  in  the  destiny  of  nations.  Very 
thankful  let  us  be  that  there  are  no  such  gad-flies 
to  help  us  colonize  our  Pacific  empire;  the  species 
oestrus  coronatus  is  not  a  product  of  the  soil  we  tread 
upon! 

Once  more,  then,  these  poor  souls  are  to  set  forth; 
men,  women,  children,  with  their  small  possessions, 
huddled  into  the  little  crowded  vessel  named  from  the 
tenderest  of  the  flowers,  and  sent  on  the  rudest  of  er- 
rands. O,  the  dreadful  Atlantic!  When  in  the  wild 
autumnal  tempests  the  black  water  piles  itself  like  a 
wall,  and  drops  like  a  crashing  roof  upon  the  deck  of 
some  vast  liner  that  could  literally  have  taken  the  May- 
flower as  her  long-boat,  how  terrible  is  the  groan  from 
her  mighty  hollows,  and  how  the  blow  shivers  through 
all  her  knotted  knees  and  springing  timbers!  What 
can  we  say  of  that  half- winter  voyage  in  a  little  unsafe 
vessel,  choking  with  its  load  of  life,  that  would  be  ex- 
aggerated ?  That  death  should  have  but  once  touched 
them,  is  the  most  wonderful  part  of  the  story.  The 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          283 

death-angel  was  waiting  for  them  on  the  sandy  shore 
of  PatuxeL  We  send  our  exploring  expeditions  to  the 
remotest  north ;  and  we  think  it,  and  justly  think  it,  a 
sad  proof  of  the  hardships  they  have  encountered  if 
they  leave  three  or  four  graves  behind  them  in  the 
frozen  earth.  When  the  first  winter  had  passed,  half 
the  Pilgrims  were  gone;  but  there  were  no  mounds  to 
mark  where  their  bodies  lay.  Such  a  record  of  loss 
and  evidence  of  weakness,  would  have  been  too  dan- 
gerous a  confession.  So  the  ploughman,  with  tingling 
feet,  drove  his  share  over  the  place  where  the  dead  were 
buried,  and  the  tall  grain  was  garnered  from  its  hal- 
lowed surface,  with  thoughts  not  of  the  harvest  above, 
but  the  wasting  spoils  of  the  Destroyer  that  lay  below. 
The  story  lived  in  tradition,  that  it  was  on  a  bank  not 
far  from  the  place  where  the  Pilgrims  landed,  that  these 
first  victims,  worn  out  by  fatigues  and  wretched  ex- 
posures, were  hidden  away  from  all  but  the  sad  hearts 
they  left  behind  them.  During  the  past  year,  this 
sacred  soil  was  disturbed  in  the  course  of  making  some 
necessary  excavations.  Human  bones  were  uncovered ; 
and  the  question  arose  whether  they  were  those  of  the 
native  races,  or  of  the  victims  of  that  first  dreadful 
winter.  I  was  asked  to  look  upon  these  relics,  and  give 
an  opinion  as  to  the  race  to  which  they  belonged.  A 
look  was  enough;  but  a  careful  comparison  was  made 
between  these  and  the  characteristic  remains  of  the 
Aborigines,  that  no  shadow  of  doubt  might  remain. 
Yes !  These  were  the  bones  that  barred  in  and  domed 
over  the  souls  of  the  first  that  perished  from  among  the 
heroic  Pilgrims !  The  mortal  relics  of  these  immortal 
martyrs  were  before  us.  No  vulgar  curiosity,  staring 
with  greedy  eyes  through  the  mask  of  science,  keeps 
them  to  be  gazed  at  among  its  wonders.  Restored  to 
the  dust  from  which  they  were  taken,  not  without  honor 


284  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

and  tearful  remembrance,  they  rest  by  the  side  of  those 
from  which  they  were  briefly  separated. 

I  have  touched,  as  I  promised,  upon  the  familiar  story 
of  the  first  days  of  the  self-exiled  colonists.  It  can 
never  tire  in  the  memory  of  their  descendants.  Orators 
whose  lips  are  yet  unformed  to  speech;  poets  whose 
voices  have  as  yet  caught  no  melodious  tones  from  the 
angels  they  shall  hear  in  dreams;  artists  whose  concep- 
tions slumber  in  unmingled  colors  and  unquarried  mar- 
bles, will  arise  in  successive  generations  to  commemo- 
rate them.  Even  now  the  gratitude  of  the  children  of 
the  Pilgrims  is  meditating  some  memorial  of  their  lives, 
to  add  glory,  if  it  may  be,  to  the  place  which  they  made 
illustrious  by  their  first  landing  and  residence.  Is  it 
not  right,  and  more  than  right — is  it  not  a  duty,  for 
one  who  is  addressing  those  most  largely  interested  in 
such  a  pious  effort,  to  speak  plainly  his  views,  even  if 
they  may  happen  to  differ  from  those  of  some  for  whose 
opinion  he  has  great  consideration?  It  is  not  by  dis- 
plays of  art,  I  venture  to  think,  that  we  can  best  honor 
the  soil  of  Plymouth,  and  the  memory  of  its  colonists. 
The  sea  is  their  eternal  monument  so  long  as  its  blue 
tablet  shall  glisten  in  the  light  of  morning.  The  lonely 
island  where  they  passed  their  first  "Christian  Sab- 
bath" will  stand  until  winter  has  scaled  off  the  storied 
surface  of  the  most  enduring  monolith.  The  bleak 
sand  will  be  there,  and  the  stern  rocks  forever,  and  De- 
cember will  sheet  them  with  the  snows  that  make  them 
doubly  desolate,  until  the  heavens  are  shrivelled  as  a 
scroll.  That  is  not  the  place  for  Art  to  come,  with  her 
elaborate  conceptions,  to  lead  away  the  hearts  of  living 
pilgrims  from  the  memory  of  those  plain  and  rudely 
clad  men  and  women.  God  forbid  that  their  precious 
dust  should  be  scattered  in  digging  foundations  for 
some  ambitious  Valhalla  that  is  to  make  Plymouth  the 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES         285 

Mecca  of  dilettanti,  and  call  in  the  sister  arts  to  intrude 
their  academic  graces  between  us  and  the  one  single, 
sad,  glorious  memory  that  hallows  the  bay  and  the 
hill,  and  every  spot  where  the  feet  of  the  Pilgrims  trod 
or  their  eyes  rested!  If  a  memorial  is  called  for,  it 
should,  as  it  seems  to  me,  have  for  its  two  leading 
qualities  simplicity  and  durability.  If  art  is  furnished 
with  a  carte-blanche,  and  told  to  rival  the  moral  gran- 
deur of  the  scene  with  the  ideal  beauty  of  her  concep- 
tions, it  can  only  end,  we  may  fear,  in  a  failure  which 
will  be  a  disgrace,  or  a  success  which  will  be  a  misfor- 
tune. If  I  could  finish  the  Cologne  cathedral  with  a 
word,  and  transport  it  with  a  wish,  the  last  spot  in  New 
England  I  would  choose  for  it  would  be  the  landing 
place  of  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims.  It  is  a  rule  that  ar- 
tists know  well  enough,  not  to  let  cross-lights  shine  on 
what  they  wish  to  display  to  advantage.  The  serene 
and  heavenly  smile  of  those  devoted  men  and  women 
has  for  its  natural  background,  if  so  trivial  an  expres- 
sion may  be  used,  the  scowl  of  the  bare  landscape 
around  their  place  of  refuge.  Thus  surrounded,  one 
impression  dominates  all  others  in  the  mind  of  him 
who  seeks  the  holy  place  to  live  over  the  days  of  the 
struggling  colonists.  This  is  the  impression  that  a 
misplaced  artistic  display  would  do  its  best  to  confuse 
with  its  cross-light.  Overcome  it,  it  never  can ;  point  to 
the  levelled  bank  and  say,  "There  lies  the  dust  of  John 
Carver,  and  all  the  bold  men  and  patient  women  that 
perished  around  him,"  and  our  thoughts  are  nearer 
Heaven  already  than  the  tallest  structure  of  art  can 
climb  with  its  aspiring  cap-stone ! 

Since  these  words  were  written,  I  have  seen  the  pro- 
posed plan,  and  learned  something  more  of  the  inten- 
tions of  the  public-spirited  sons  of  New  England  who 
have  interested  themselves  in  the  great  work  proposed. 


286  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

I  know  the  genius  of  the  artist,  and  cannot  withhold 
my  admiration  of  his  design.  The  names  of  the  friends 
of  the  undertaking  are  enough  to  assure  us  that  any 
plan  they  offer  to  the  New  England  public  will  be  con- 
ceived in  a  noble  spirit,  and  pressed  to  its  fulfilment 
with  vigor  and  perseverance.  They  will  listen  to  any 
fellow-citizen,  I  doubt  not,  who  asks  them  to  reflect 
once  more  before  their  final  decision,  whether  that  is 
the  best  place  for  the  magnificent  monumental  structure 
they  contemplate,  and  whether  that  is  the  best  monu- 
ment for  the  place.  Pardon  me  for  uttering  my  thought 
plainly.  On  the  very  heart  of  the  great  city  of  the 
Puritans,  and  nowhere  else,  should  be  worn  this  jewel 
of  Art,  which  the  gratitude  of  their  children  will  have 
of  such  royal  splendor.  The  plain  village  should  con- 
tent itself  with  the  plainest  and  most  durable  of  rec- 
ords to  mark  all  its  chief  places  of  interest;  it  is  rich 
enough  with  these  without  asking  to  wear  the  ambi- 
tious ornaments  that  belong  only  to  the  great  centres 
of  art  and  wealth,  where  the  world  can  see  them,  and 
where  they  are  in  keeping  with  the  surrounding  ob- 
jects. These  views  may  be  wrong,  but  they  are  not 
hasty.  It  were  a  pity  to  be  precipitate  where  an  error 
will  be  beyond  remedy;  to  spend  half  a  million  and 
have  the  result  called  the  "Plymouth  Folly;"  to  give 
some  future  poet  of  the  Pacific  shore  a  chance  of  say- 
ing with  Shelley — 

"I  met  a  traveller  from  an  antique  land 

Who  said :  Two  vast  and  trunkless  legs  of  stone 

Stand  in  the  desert.    Near  them,  on  the  sand, 
Half  sunk,  a  shattered  visage  lies,    .    .    . 

Nothing  beside  remains.    Round  the  decay 
Of  that  colossal  wreck,  boundless  and  bare 

The  lone  and  level  sands  stretch  far  away." 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          287 

These  slight  and  imperfect  allusions  to  the  story  of 
the  past,  leading  to  the  question  as  to  the  fitting  monu- 
mental record  to  be  reared  in  its  remembrance,  have 
brought  us,  unintentionally  it  might  seem,  but  not  pre- 
maturely, face  to  face  with  the  present  A  glimpse  at 
the  outer  and  inner  life  of  New  England,  as  her  chil- 
dren remember  it,  or  now  look  upon  it,  is  not  inappro- 
priate, I  trust,  to  this  occasion  and  this  assembly.  You 
had  rather,  I  doubt  not,  that  I  should  speak  my  own 
feelings  and  opinions  plainly,  than  reflect  the  popular 
sentiment  of  the  time  for  the  sake  of  any  momentary 
impression  that  might  win  a  little  cheap  applause.  If 
there  is  a  trace  of  questionable  conservatism  in  any  of 
my  remarks,  bear  with  me  kindly;  the  antidote  will 
follow  close  upon  the  poison,  and  the  burning  words 
of  my  ever-youthful  associate  will  correct  any  mischief 
that  might  be  ascribed  to  a  shade  of  premature  senility 
in  my  own  sober  utterances. 

It  is  hard  to  draw  a  picture  of  New  England  coun- 
try life  without  making  a  portrait  which  the  fancy,  at 
least,  of  many  will  gift  with  a  resemblance  to  their 
early  recollections.  Is  there  not  more  than  one  here 
who  remembers  such  a  place  as  this  which  is  now  set 
before  him?  It  is  an  ancient-looking  brown  house; 
brown  with  that  peculiar  tint  that  belongs  to  weather- 
stained  pine,  and  is  the  natural  complexion  of  unpainted 
New  England  houses.  It  fronts  with  two  fair  stories 
to  the  road ;  but  if  you  take  it  in  flank,  you  see  that  the 
roof  runs  backward  with  a  great  slope  to  within  a  few 
feet  of  the  ground.  One  huge  square  chimney  rises 
through  the  centre  of  the  ridge-pole;  a  tall  poplar,  its 
emulous  companion,  has  overtopped  it,  and  drops  a 
few  leaves  every  autumn  down  into  its  black  throat. 
A  broken  millstone  gives  a  certain  dignity  to  the  main 


288  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

entrance  at  whose  threshold  it  lies.  That  is  the  barn, 
of  course,  vast,  brown,  like  the  house,  with  a  ring  of 
swallows'  nests,  like  barnacles,  all  round  the  eaves; 
there  ought  to  be  a  swing  inside,  and  plenty  of  hens' 
nests,  and  secret  deposits  of  ripening  apples  in  holes  of 
the  haymows ;  we  should  find  them  all,  no  doubt,  if  we 
went  in  and  knew  where  to  look.  Ever  graceful  and 
beautiful,  the  well-sweep,  with  the  clanking  iron-bound 
bucket,  and  the  heavy  stone,  its  counterpoise,  stands  a 
little  back  and  at  one  side.  The  stone  walls  must  have 
been  laid  more  than  fifty  years,  to  judge  by  their  pres- 
ent look;  all  the  stones  seem  to  have  grown  into  com- 
panionship, and  harmonize  together  as  if  they  had  al- 
ways lain  as  they  lie.  The  lichens  on  them  are  like 
the  seals  on  royal  treasures ;  they  show  with  their  broad 
unbroken  stamps  that  nothing  has  been  disturbed  for 
many  a  long  year.  There  is  the  orchard;  there  are 
trees  in  it  famous  for  early  apples,  and  limbs  of  trees 
that  the  boys  knew  well  for  the  fruit  they  bore;  won- 
derfully sagacious  are  boys  at  detecting  a  fast  graft 
on  a  slow  tree;  there  are  fifty  men  that  remember  fifty 
such  boughs  while  I  am  speaking.  Of  course,  we  do 
not  forget  the  crooked  footpath  running  across  the  lots 
to  our  neighbor's  farm ;  that  curious  little  solitary  high- 
way that  turns  and  twists  and  starts  aside  for.no  con- 
ceivable reason;  all  footpaths  in  the  fields  look  as  if 
they  were  trodden  out  by  lovers  or  madmen.  Not  far 
off  was  the  wood  where  the  sweet  fern  breathed  its  fra- 
grance and  the  bayberry  repeated  it ;  where  the  checker- 
berry  spread  its  aromatic  leaves  and  berries  and  the 
black  birch  imitated  its  flavor  with  its  bark ;  so  econom- 
ical is  New  England  nature  in  the  matter  of  perfumes 
and  spicery.  O,  the  remembrance  of  the  early  days 
passed  amidst  these  homely  scenes!  Of  tumbling  in 
long  grass,  and  sucking  of  honeyed  clover,  and  bur- 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          289 

rowing  in  mountainous  haycocks  and  climbing  of  el- 
bowed apple  trees;  of  waking  to  the  clamor  of  twitter- 
ing swallows,  and  sleeping  at  the  curfew  of  purring 
crickets ;  of  Indian  corn  forests  where,  being  little,  you 
walked  unseen,  while  the  brocaded  leaves  grated  and 
crackled  as  you  rustled  between  the  stalks;  of  wild 
cherry  trees,  with  bark  as  bright  and  brown  as  fresh 
bronze,  where  the  robins  fought  and  scolded  for  the 
small  berries;  of  old  elms  where  the  fire-hang-bird 
swung  her  long  purse  with  the  half-dozen  eggs  in  it; 
nature's  liberal  reckoning  when  she  gives  change  for 
an  old  couple,  with  or  without  feathers ;  of  the  chestnut 
tree  that  dropped  its  burs  at  the  first  frost,  gaping  like 
dead  shell-fish  on  the  seashore;  of  the  sweet  music  that 
is  in  the  open  air  from  the  days  when  you  hear  the  soft 
breathing  of  the  cows  as  they  crop  the  tender  grass,  to 
the  hot  July  noons  when  the  mower  passes  through  the 
purpled  red-top  and  the  heavy  nodding  herdsgrass,  the 
measured  respiration  of  his  scythe  sighing  over  each 
rank  as  it  falls  with  all  its  lances  and  pennons;  and 
later  still,  when  the  red  leaves  crackle  under  foot,  and  the 
wild-goose  wedges  steer  southward,  heard  high  in  the 
frosty  air ;  and  at  the  last,  when  the  wind  whistles  in  the 
bare  trees  and  the  ice  snaps  in  the  ponds  like  the  strings 
of  an  overstrained  harpsichord,  and  so  the  frozen  palms 
of  winter  crash  out  the  last  chorus  of  the  year's  sym- 
phony ! 

If  you  were  born  and  bred  among  such  sights  and 
sounds  as  these,  they  will  never  die  out  of  your  remem- 
brance. It  is  hard  if  a  man  who  works  in  poisons  shall 
carry  them  about  with  him  ever  after,  and  nature's 
kindly  atmosphere  breathed  in  so  long  shall  not  make  a 
part  of  our  systems  and  run  in  our  blood  as  long  as 
our  systems  hold  together  and  our  blood  flows.  This 
is  the  privilege  of  the  young  man  of  New  England 


290  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

birth;  nature,  not  wholly  rough  and  uncultivated,  not 
as  in  many  newer  sections  of  the  country,  still  reeking 
with  undrained  morasses  that  breed  disease,  and  de- 
formed with  unsightly  ruins  of  the  forest  that  defy  the 
spirit  of  beauty  to  find  a  resting  place  among  them; 
but  nature  subdued  and  humanized,  without  being  de- 
prived of  its  greenness  and  fragrance,  is  his  birthright ; 
it  gives  him  lessons  of  beauty  no  counting-room  can 
smother  with  its  ledgers ;  it  gives  his  soul  a  horizon  no 
lines  of  warehouses  can  so  wall  in  that  he  will  not  see 
its  blue  heavens  through  them ;  it  gives  him  an  inward 
sanctuary  of  peace  and  repose  that  the  streets  can  never 
shake  him  out  of;  let  him  tread  the  grass  for  fifteen 
summers,  and  then  plod  the  pavement  forty  years,  and 
his  dreams  will  still  be  of  running  barefoot  among  the 
clover. 

The  recollections  of  the  past  on  which  we  pride  our- 
selves, the  pleasant  remembrances  that  shed  their  light 
over  the  New  England  home,  which  so  many  of  us 
recall  with  tender  affection,  all  lead  us  to  the  question, 
whether  we  are  worthy  of  the  past  which  we  inherit  and 
the  land  which  we  love?  It  is  too  late  to  ask  us  to  be 
true  to  the  faith  of  our  fathers ;  we  desire  to  be  false  to 
many  of  their  superstitions,  which  we  cannot  deny, 
and  to  their  intolerance,  which  we  need  not  attempt  to 
excuse.  But  if  we  are  true  to  the  spirit  of  their  reli- 
gion, which  recognized  a  divinely  illuminated  con- 
science as  the  Supreme  guide;  if  we  have  carried  out 
those  principles  of  individual  development  of  which 
they  laid  the  foundations,  and  which  find  their  expres- 
sion in  the  greatest  freedom  of  knowledge  to  all,  and 
the  purest  practicable  self-government;  if,  with  all  our 
imperfections,  we  have  done  something  to  lift  Chris- 
tianity out  of  its  technical  enclosures  into  the  broad 
fields  of  practical  benevolence;  if  we  have,  however 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          291 

blindly,  struggled  sincerely  and  strenuously  with  the 
public  sins  of  our  time,  then  we  are  not  wholly  un- 
worthy of  our  descent  and  our  heritage. 

Is  the  intellect  of  New  England  not  thoroughly 
awake?  We  are  almost  ashamed  to  think  how  large 
a  part  of  all  the  best  thinking  and  writing  that  is  done 
in  the  country  either  comes  from  her  soil  directly,  or 
at  least  has  passed  through  her  intellectual  alembic. 
There  is  something  unnatural  in  it;  either  she  over- 
stimulates  her  children,  or  some  Boeotian  materialism 
is  keeping  minds  down  elsewhere.  Let  others  repeat 
the  catalogue  of  her  theologians,  her  philosophers,  her 
historians,  her  poets,  her  story-tellers ;  it  has  been  done, 
oftener,  we  trust,  in  self-defence  than  in  bravado,  until 
the  list  has  become  familiar  and  slightly  tedious.  But 
I  will  ask  you  if  it  is  not  startling  to  take  the  map  of 
the  Union  and  cover  New  England  with  your  forefin- 
ger, and  then  spread  both  open  hands  over  the  rest 
without  hiding  it,  and  count  in  parallel  columns  the 
names  that  the  world  knows  from  all  that  vast  expanse 
on  one  side,  and  those  of  equal  note  on  the  other,  to 
whom  this  little  strip  has  given  birth,  or  a  home,  or  an 
education?  It  is  too  serious  a  matter  for  boasting;  it 
is  a  phenomenon,  a  portent ;  the  mind  of  the  country  is 
in  poor  training,  or  it  would  never  happen  that  such  a 
shred  and  corner  should  be  allowed  to  do  so  large  a 
share  of  its  thinking. 

Are  there  any  that  think  the  heart  of  New  England 
is  asleep?  We  claim  no  pre-eminence  for  her;  we 
should  blush  for  the  rest  of  the  country,  if  we  did  not 
recognize  in  many  sections  of  it  a  generous  emulation 
in  works  of  public  charity,  that  shames  away  every 
invidious  comparison.  But  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  her  proverbial  ingenuity  is  as  active  in  opening 
new  channels  for  benevolence  as  in  the  invention  of 


292  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

labor-saving  machinery.  The  intensity  of  life  among 
her  people,  joined  with  a  climate  that  tries,  if  it  does 
not  impair  the  stamina  of  the  imported  races,  gives 
rise  to  many  forms  of  infirmity.  There  is  hardly  one 
of  these  unprovided  for  by  her  public  charities.  There 
is  no  generous  enterprise  to  which  she  is  not  ready  to 
contribute  her  money  and  her  labor.  But  while  we 
make  this  claim,  let  us  not  forget  that  there  is  a  self- 
devotion,  far  higher  than  any  to  which  New  England- 
ers  have  been  called  in  the  present  generation,  and  of 
which  the  high-souled  Southern  people,  whom  we  so 
often  hear  named  only  to  be  reproached,  have  given  us, 
during  the  past  year,  a  lofty  illustration.  Need  I  men- 
tion the  pestilence-stricken  cities,  and  the  devoted  army 
of  martyrs  that  laid  down  their  lives  as  freely  as  the 
"noble  six  hundred"  gave  themselves  away  to  the  can- 
non mouths  of  Balaklava;  but  without  a  trumpet  to 
sound  the  charge,  with  no  order  from  human  lips  to 
urge  them  on,  with  no  earthly  honor  in  prospect  as  the 
reward  of  victory?  We  dare  not  place  the  noblest 
charities  of  New  England  by  the  side  of  this  glorious 
self-sacrifice  in  which  she  had  no  part.  We  cannot 
doubt  that  if  the  hour  of  need  should  come,  such  souls 
would  shine  out  from  among  her  people;  all  we  claim 
for  her  is  that  she  discharges  well  the  duties  of  an 
easier  benevolence;  that  her  heart  is  not  resting  while 
her  brain  is  so  busy. 

We  are  proud  of  her  present,  then,  as  of  her  past; 
proud  that  there  is  so  much  life  in  her  intellect  and  her 
sympathies.  Soberly  proud  of  her,  and  ready  to  see 
if  with  all  this  that  we  love  to  contemplate,  there  is 
not  something  to  regret,  and  something  to  fear  in  her 
character  and  destiny. 

There  is  no  need  of  troubling  ourselves  for  the  fool- 
ish talk  about  her  ultraisms  and  heresies.  They  are 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          293 

only  the  necessary  result,  and  they  form  the  natural 
index,  of  her  intellectual  activity.  Some  of  her  ultra- 
isms  are,  no  doubt,  destined  to  be  truisms  in  the 
next  generation.  Some  of  her  heresies  will,  probably 
enough,  be  very  orthodox  in  less  than  fifty  years.  But 
take  them  for  what  scoffers  call  them,  and  they  mark 
that  the  scouts  of  knowledge  are  at  the  outposts  of 
the  great  camp,  where  the  voice  of  the  sentries  from 
the  opposing  hosts  of  truth  and  error  are  often  min- 
gled, and  each  is  liable  in  the  darkness  to  confound  his 
ally  with  his  enemy.  Trust  the  beneficent  averages  of 
an  all-wise  Providence.  The  Creator  has  no  fear  of 
extremes ;  their  presence  marks  the  vigor  of  the  life  out 
of  which  they  spring ;  from  them  flow  strength  and  heat, 
inward  through  the  deep  columns  of  mind  of  which 
they  are  the  opposite  poles.  Out  of  the  same  people 
comes  in  one  century  the  remorseless  reasoner,  who 
drives  his  terrible  logic  to  conclusions  on  which,  as 
many  will  tell  you,  the  only  rational  comment  is  the 
howl  of  despairing  insanity ;  and  in  another  century  the 
mild  philosopher  who  husks  off  all  the  technicalities  of 
Christianity  and  unmagnetizes  all  its  soul-subduing 
phraseology,  turning  it,  as  some  will  have  it,  into  mere 
heathenism ;  but,  although  you  or  I  may  be  frightened 
at  the  doctrines  of  one  or  the  other,  do  not  think  reli- 
gion is  in  danger,  because  such  souls  are  born  into  the 
world  from  time  to  time.  May  you  not  see  two  of  the 
most  robust  brains  of  New  England,  at  this  very  mo- 
ment, one  of  them  challenging  universal  allegiance  to 
the  most  absolute  of  spiritual  despotisms,  and  the  other 
asserting  a  freedom  which  owns  no  law  but  its  own 
convictions?  God  makes  an  idol-worshipper  with  one 
hand  and  an  iconoclast  with  the  other.  Wo  to  the  land 
that  has  no  enthusiasts,  no  fanatics,  no  madmen!  It 
is  the  lethargy  of  intellectual  and  moral  death  alone 


294  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

that  can  exempt  the  mind  of  man  from  such  excep- 
tional excesses  and  occasional  disorganizations,  as  the 
accidents  of  its  mortal  condition. 

With  these  feelings,  we  might  perhaps  look  without 
apprehension  on  the  attitude  taken  by  a  largely  preva- 
lent popular  opinion,  as  to  certain  great  questions  that 
come  directly  home  to  us  all,  as  citizens  and  as  lovers 
of  our  common  country.  The  extreme  temperance 
movement  is  of  New  England  origin.  The  anti-sla- 
very passion  burns  most  fiercely  in  New  England  bo- 
soms. But  here  the  difficulty  is,  that  while  opinions 
on  all  merely  speculative  subjects  find  their  just  mean 
at  last,  in  spite  of  the  extremes  of  fanaticism;  opinions 
that  pass  into  the  shape  of  statutes ;  opinions  that,  once 
carried  out,  change  the  relations  of  states  to  each  other, 
prevent  their  own  just  balance  from  being  reached,  by 
the  weight  of  positive  legislation  which  they  rivet  to  the 
scale  they  would  have  preponderate,  or  by  corroding 
and  destroying  the  very  pivot,  the  even  play  of  which 
can  alone  settle  the  true  level  of  conflicting  principles 
and  interests. 

Is  there  any  offence  in  saying  that  one  may  recognize 
the  crowding  Judaism  of  the  Puritan  legislators  in  the 
attempt  to  enforce  a  statute  which  no  solitary  despot 
would  be  like  to  venture?  New  England  is  answer- 
able for  all  the  good  and  evil  of  the  famous  "Maine 
Law ;"  for  all  the  wretches  it  may  save ;  for  all  the  hypo- 
crites, and  rebels,  and  law-haters  it  makes.  As  a  moral 
tour  de  force,  it  is  certainly  beyond  anything  in  modern 
legislation.  It  shows  that  the  old  Puritan  conscience 
is  as  much  alive  as  ever.  Does  it  not  also  show  the 
same  spirit  of  provincial  tyranny  that  peopled  Rhode 
Island  with  fugitives  from  Massachusetts  and  her  sister 
colonies  two  centuries  ago? 

In  the  meantime,  Nature  enters  her  silent  protest. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES         295 

The  banks  of  the  Ohio  are  glowing  with  their  purple 
vintage,  and, — oh,  shame ! — the  hills  of  New  Hampshire 
have  turned  traitors  to  the  stern  New  England  ordi- 
nance, and  their  grape  juice  has  ripened  into  not  un- 
palatable wine.  The  law  of  Maine  will  hardly  take 
effect  while  the  law  of  fermentation  remains  unrepealed 
on  the  pages  of  Heaven's  statute  book.  The  strictest 
Sabbath  edict  never  could  keep  the  Puritan  ale  from 
working  on  Sundays.  Whatever  good  may  have  been 
produced  directly  in  the  forcible  suppression  of  vice 
and  diminution  of  crime,  a  law  made  to  be  habitually 
and  openly  violated  is  a  frightful  demoralizer  of  so- 
ciety. A  law  notoriously  despised  by  many  that  appear 
as  its  public  advocates;  which  takes  many  a  vote  from 
the  same  hand  that  an  hour  later  is  lifted  trembling  to 
the  voter's  lips  with  the  draught  that  quiets  at  once  his 
nerves  and  his  conscience;  such  a  law  deserves  to  be 
studied  with  a  larger  view  than  that  which  merely  em- 
braces its  action  upon  a  single  vice.  Let  those  who 
advocate  it,  at  least  remember  that  it  involves  the  whole 
truthfulness,  the  whole  loyalty,  of  society,  in  addition 
to  the  special  object  named  upon  its  face. 

It  would  be  a  mockery  to  speak  of  the  present  moral 
aspect  of  New  England,  and  not  allude  to  her  position 
with  reference  to  the  great  question  in  which  the  des- 
tinies of  the  whole  country  are  involved. 

The  same  conscientiousness  which  alone  could  have 
rendered  possible  the  passage  of  that  extraordinary  law 
just  referred  to,  shows  itself  in  the  deep  feeling  with 
which  the  whole  subject  of  slavery  is  regarded.  No 
sin  of  our  own,  not  even  intemperance,  is  so  perpetually 
before  the  conscience  of  New  England  as  this  detested 
social  arrangement  of  our  neighbors.  There  is  hardly 
need  of  saying  that  we  all  agree  in  saving  every  inch 
of  American  soil  we  fairly  can  for  freedom,  and  reduc- 


296  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ing  our  involuntary  participation  in  slavery  to  the  mini- 
mum consistent  with  our  existence  as  a  united  people. 
The  question  is,  whether  New  England,  bound  up  with 
a  group  of  confederate  sovereignties,  cherishes  the  right 
temper  and  uses  the  right  language  to  her  slaveholding 
sister  States. 

There  is  no  denying  that  there  is  a  manly  logic  in  the 
extreme  left  of  abolitionism.  Tear  the  Constitution  to 
tatters,  empty  the  language  of  its  opprobrious  epithets 
on  the  men  of  the  southern  section  of  what  has  been 
foolishly  called  our  common  country,  and  take  the  con- 
sequences. The  ultra  melanophiles  accept  all  the  pos- 
sibilities of  such  a  course  with  a  boldness  that  would  be 
heroism  if  it  were  only  action  instead  of  talk;  that  is 
at  any  rate  consistent  and  true  to  its  premises.  We 
always  have  a  respect  for  a  principle  carried  out  with- 
out compromises  or  coalitions  to  round  off  its  edges, 
so  that  it  may  be  rolled  by  politicians,  instead  of  being 
lifted  and  borne  in  the  arms  of  true  reformers.  And 
this  respect  we  have  for  the  men  of  the  extreme  party ; 
we  cannot  change  the  definitions  of  traitor  and  treason 
as  the  dictionaries  insist  on  giving  them;  but  we  must 
concede  to  these  confederates  logical  heads  as  well  as 
daring  and  often  eloquent  lips.  We  feel  for  Othello, 
even  in  his  murderous  delusion;  and  these  are  our  po- 
litical Othellos,  who  proclaim  that  our  boasted  Liberty, 
with  her  fair  face  and  matronly  air,  is  a  courtezan,  and 
would  treat  her  as  Desdemona  was  treated,  but  for  the 
machinery  of  retribution  which  is  close  at  hand. 

But  from  those  who  do  not  profess  to  repudiate  the 
fundamental  compact  and  the  general  laws  of  their 
country,  we  may  be  pardoned  if  we  ask  an  equal  degree 
of  logical  consistency.  They  must  either  annul  the 
contract  made  by  their  fathers,  or  keep  it,  not  according 
to  any  ingenious  interpretations  they  may  choose  to 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          297 

put  upon  it,  but  with  the  same  punctilious  honesty  and 
honor  that  high-minded  men  show  in  their  private  deal- 
ings. If  it  involves  a  sin,  they  are  accomplices,  and 
have  no  right  to  open  their  lips  against  it  until  they 
have  washed  their  own  hands  clean  from  its  stains. 
You  may  plead  as  a  moralist  with  a  Turk  or  a  Mormon, 
to  give  up  nine  of  his  ten  wives.  But  if  you  enter  into 
a  partnership  with  him,  and  agree  to  return  the  truant 
ladies  of  his  household  against  their  will,  for  a  certain 
consideration,  or  if  your  fathers  did,  and  you  hold  to 
the  agreement,  you  have  forfeited  the  right  to  declaim 
against  polygamy. 

It  is,  perhaps,  owing  to  the  violence  of  the  extreme 
party,  and  the  want  of  moral  power  that  springs  from 
the  false  position  of  many  of  the  more  moderate  oppo- 
nents of  slavery,  that  so  little  impression  has  been  made 
upon  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  slaveholders.  We 
have  labored  for  a  whole  generation,  and  they  tell  us 
we  have  not  made  out  our  case  against  them.  We  have 
convinced  ourselves  a  hundred  times  over,  and  they 
lay  their  hands  on  their  hearts  and  say,  "We  have  lis- 
tened to  your  arguments,  and  grant  you  nothing — 
nothing."  Slavery,  then,  is  amongst  us  exactly  like 
any  physical  fact.  It  has  proved  of  no  more  avail  to 
reason  against  it  than  it  would  have  been  to  launch  a 
syllogism  against  the  embattled  crests  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  The  question,  therefore,  comes  plainly  be- 
fore us,  shall  we  of  New  England,  men  of  the  front 
rank,  standard-bearers  by  our  position  and  antecedents ; 
shall  we  of  the  North  feel  and  act  to  these  Southern 
men  as  equals  and  brothers ;  shall  we  treat  them  always 
in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love;  or  shall  we  proscribe, 
excommunicate,  anathematize,  vituperate  and  irritate 
them  until  mutual  hatred  shall  ripen  into  open  warfare? 

The  question  of  interfering  races  is  a  very  terrible 


298  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

one;  it  never  was,  and  perhaps  never  will  be,  settled 
according  to  the  abstract  principles  of  justice.  Look 
at  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  land  we  occupy. 
It  pleased  the  Creator  to  call  into  existence  this  half- 
filled  outline  of  humanity;  this  sketch  in  red  crayons 
of  a  rudimental  manhood;  to  keep  the  continent  from 
being  a  blank  until  the  true  lord  of  creation  should 
come  to  claim  it  Civilization  and  Christianity  have 
tried  to  humanize  him,  and  he  proves  a  dead  failure. 
Theologians  stand  aghast  at  a  whole  race  destined,  ac- 
cording to  their  old  formulae,  to  destruction,  temporal 
and  eternal.  Philanthropists  mourn  over  them,  and 
from  time  to  time  catch  a  red  man  and  turn  him  into 
their  colleges  as  they  would  turn  a  partridge  in  among 
the  barn-door  fowls.  But  instinct  has  its  way  sooner 
or  later ;  the  partridge  makes  but  a  troublesome  chicken, 
and  the  Indian  but  a  sorry  Master  of  Arts,  if  he  does 
not  run  for  the  woods,  where  all  the  fera  natures  im- 
pulses are  urging  him.  These  instincts  lead  to  his  ex- 
termination; too  often  the  sad  solution  of  the  problem 
of  his  relation  to  the  white  race.  As  soon  as  any  con- 
flict arises  between  them,  his  savage  nature  begins  to 
show  itself.  He  dashes  the  babes'  heads  against  their 
fathers'  hearthstones — as  at  our  Oxford — a  heap  of 
stones  still  shows  you  where  he  did  it;  or  flings  them 
out  of  windows,  as  at  Haverhill ;  he  mutilates  his  pros- 
trate enemy;  he  drives  away  the  women  like  beasts  of 
burden.  Then  the  white  man  hates  him,  and  hunts  him 
down  like  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest,  and  so  the  red- 
crayon  sketch  is  rubbed  out,  and  the  canvas  is  ready 
for  a  picture  of  manhood  a  little  more  like  God's  own 
image. 

And  so  of  the  other  question  between  the  white  and 
black  races.  We  see  no  apparent  solution  of  it  except 
in  the  indefinite,  we  may  hope  not  the  perpetual  con- 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          299 

tinuance  of  the  present  relation  between  them.  Here, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Indians,  or  any  other  inferior 
natural  tribe  of  men,  our  sympathies  will  go  with  our 
own  color  first.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  palliate  any  act 
of  injustice  that  a  man  of  one  complexion  may  be 
guilty  of  against  a  man  of  a  different  one.  Whatever 
wrongs  we  can  win  the  masters  away  from  committing ; 
whatever  woes  we  can  alleviate  in  the  weaker  people; 
we  should  remember  and  care  for.  But  always  in  the 
last  appeal  it  will  come  to  this;  if  we  must  choose  be- 
tween the  two  races,  alliance  with  the  superior  one, 
which  we  may  hope  to  raise  to  our  own  level,  if  it  is 
below  it,  or  with  the  lower  one  which  we  never  can, 
no  abstract  principle  of  benevolence  can  reverse  the 
great  family  instinct  that  settles  the  question  for  us. 
The  Creator  has  hung  out  the  colors  that  form  the  two 
rallying  points,  so  that  they  shall  be  unmistakable,  eter- 
nal; nay,  there  is  hardly  a  single  sense  that  does  not 
bear  witness  to  the  ineffaceable  distinction  of  blood, 
only  prevented  from  producing  open  opposition  by  the 
unchallenged  supremacy  of  the  higher  of  the  two  races. 
The  white  man  must  be  the  master  in  effect,  whatever 
he  is  in  name ;  and  the  only  way  to  make  him  do  right 
by  the  Indian,  the  African,  the  Chinese,  is  to  make  him 
better  by  example  and  loving  counsel. 

I  say,  then,  with  the  freedom  which  every  son  of 
our  beloved  soil  claims  at  home,  and  which  will  not  be 
denied  him  here,  let  not  New  England  feed  upon  her 
various  antagonisms  until  she  is  poisoned  through  and 
through  with  the  hatred  that  includes  the  sinner  with 
the  sin.  Let  her  not  run  off  with  all  the  negative  vir- 
tues into  her  corner,  and  live  on  this  poor  diet  until  her 
blood  becomes  too  thin  and  pale  for  a  patriotism  that 
embraces  all  the  land  to  which  she  belongs,  a  philan- 
thropy to  welcome  the  exiles  from  every  other,  a  confi- 


300  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

clence  in  truth  and  reason  rather  than  in  statutes.  Let 
her  not  hold  up  the  pilled  wand  of  continual  strife,  so 
that  her  yet  unborn  babes  shall  come  into  the  world, 
ring-streaked,  speckled  and  spotted  with  the  birth- 
marks of  local  or  national  jealousies  that  will  make 
them  unworthy  of  the  name  of  American. 

While  one  of  her  most  eloquent  orators  openly  pro- 
fesses that  he  and  those  with  him  would  get  rid  of  the 
Union;  while  another  of  her  most  powerful  speakers 
predicts  its  speedy  downfall,  unchallenged  by  one  of 
the  multitude  before  him;  while  the  great  possible 
catastrophe  has  come  to  be  spoken  of  amongst  us  in 
flippant  and  playful  language  without  giving  offence; 
it  is  not  strange  that  we  should  remember  the  solemn 
words  of  warning  left  us  by  one  whose  wisdom  and 
virtue  an  incredulous  generation  still  confesses.  One 
cannot  help  fancying,  at  times,  that  New  England  is 
connected,  as  it  were,  by  an  isthmus  to  the  great  con- 
federacy. Day  and  night  sturdy  hands  are  at  work  to 
dig  it  away;  if  they  succeed,  she,  and  such  other  frag- 
ments as  may  cling  to  her,  will  stand  as  an  island  in 
the  waste  of  waters.  We  must  fill  up  the  gaps  they 
make,  and  widen  the  strip  by  which  we  hold  to  the  con- 
tinent. Sacrificing  no  right,  yielding  nothing  to  men- 
aces or  flattery,  making  new  battle-fields,  if  necessary, 
wherever  the  sacred  privileges  of  freemen  are  invaded, 
we  must  yet  cultivate  that  good-will,  that  spirit  of  char- 
ity and  forbearance,  without  which  the  name  of  Union 
is  as  sad  a  jest  as  the  ghastly  mockery  of  Mezentius 
that  coupled  the  living  and  the  dead  together. 

And  now,  children  of  our  dear  New  England,  we 
whom  she  still  holds  in  her  charmed  precincts,  commit 
her  memory  to  your  grateful  keeping,  trusting  that 
neither  time  nor  distance,  nor  change  of  fortune,  can 
ever  efface  her  image  from  your  hearts,  or  render  you 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES          301 

indifferent  to  her  welfare.  Fifty  years  have  passed 
since  this  Association,  having  in  view  the  union  of  the 
sons  of  New  England,  to  perpetuate  the  recollections 
of  home,  and  to  extend  such  kindly  charities  to  its  ex- 
iled children  as  any  among  them  might  need,  had  its 
humble  beginnings.  It  has  grown  with  the  growth  of 
the  noble  city  which  within  this  same  half  century  has 
borrowed  so  much  industry,  strength  and  intelligence, 
and  repaid  it  with  such  large  returns.  New  York  is 
ever  welcome  to  the  expansive  enterprise  and  youthful 
vigor  of  New  England's  fairest  product;  the  student- 
crop  of  her  colleges,  the  thinking  and  working  har- 
vest of  her  schools  and  farms;  happy  if,  during  the 
coming  half  century,  she  can  keep  a  good  share  of  her 
spare  human  capital  at  interest  in  the  great  commercial 
centre  to  which  you,  and  those  who  have  gone  before 
you,  have  owed  so  much  during  almost  two  entire  gen- 
erations. So  shall  these  annual  meetings,  which  send 
a  glow  through  the  hearts  of  her  distant  children,  and 
call  their  names  and  images  fresh  and  warm  into  the 
memories  of  those  whom  they  have  left  behind  them,  be 
cherished  and  renewed  until  they  count  their  returns  in 
centuries  as  now  in  years. 

Why  should  we  part  without  naming  the  password 
of  our  New  England  Eleusinia — the  pivot  of  our  local 
patriotism — the  centre  where  our  recollections  of  the 
past  must  ever  rally — the  eternal  "Monument  to  the 
forefathers" — the  rock  hallowed  by  the  feet  of  the  Pil- 
grims? God  grant  that  it  may  prove  always  a  true 
symbol  of  the  character  of  the  men  of  New  England ! 
As  every  flake  that  has  been  splintered  from  it  as  a 
memento  carries  its  elements  and  character,  unchanged 
wherever  it  is  borne,  so  let  the  sons  of  her  soil  be  true 
to  their  origin  wherever  they  may  wander;  as  the  rock 
is  not  a  loose  fragment  or  a  rounded  boulder,  but  a 


302  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

part  of  the  solid  core  of  earth  itself,  to  which  it  will 
hold  until  the  planet  is  rent  asunder ;  running  under  the 
soil  that  hides  it,  under  the  mountains  that  are  piled 
upon  it,  under  the  rivers  that  flow  over  it,  under  the 
craters  that  have  spouted  fire  above  it,  and  so  is  one 
with  the  heart  of  the  great  sphere  forever;  thus  let 
New  England  forever  hold  with  heart,  and  soul,  and 
strength,  to  the  sacred  confederacy  which  looks  upon 
the  continent  as  its  destined  heritage. 


THE   PILGRIMS  OF  PLYMOUTH 


O'er  the  rough  billows  of  the  Western  sea, 
Careers  the  wind,  forever  fresh  and  free; 
Fresh  as  when  first  "the  spirit  of  the  Lord 
Moved  the  waters,"  and  the  Almighty  word 
The  firm  foundations  of  their  barriers  laid, 
Saying,  "Your  proudest  waves  shall  here  be  stayed," 
And  free  as,  at  the  moment  of  its  birth, 
When  it  breathed  softly  on  the  virgin  earth, 
And  its  Creator  gave  it  leave  to  go 
Where'er  it  chose,  and,  where  it  listed,  blow, 
Spreading  its  living  wings,  at  will,  abroad, 
By  king's  decree,  or  bishop's  ban  unawed, 
Chained  by  no  Stuart,  locked  up  by  no  Laud. 

With  souls,  taught  freedom  by  the  winds,  that  swept 
Landward,  and  rocked  their  cradles  as  they  slept, 
Souls,  that  no  more  can  brook  the  bigot's  chain, 
Than  can  the  surges  of  the  mighty  main ; 
Souls,  they  are  not  afraid  to  call  their  own, 
That  brave,  at  once,  the  mitre  and  the  throne, 
But  bow,  while  gathered  on  the  ocean's  brim, 
To  God,  in  worship,  and  to  none  but  Him. 
Behold  the  Pilgrim  band !     Their  native  isle, 
Ruled  by  a  bigot,  casts  them  out  as  vile; 
The  State  forbids  them,  by  its  stern  decrees, 
To  worship  God  when,  where,  and  as  they  please ; 

303 


304  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

While  they,  to  conscience  true,  in  virtue  strong, 
Stiff  in  the  right,  as  others  in  the  wrong, 
Resolve,  though  earthly  thrones  and  temples  fall, 
That  they  will  worship  thus,  or  not  at  all. 
And  though,  not  now,  the  Puritan  expires 
On  Tyburn's  gallows,  or  in  Smithfield's  fires ; 
Yet  fines,  pains,  penalties  there  still  remain — 
The  non-conformist's  prison  and  his  chain. 
Fleeing,  with  horse  and  hound  upon  his  track, 
His  very  garments  stripped  from  off  his  back, 
Scoffed  by  fanatics,  and  held  up  to  scorn, 
By  king,  by  courtier  and  the  nobly  born, 
He  bids  adieu,  to  see  their  face  no  more, 
And  lay  his  bones  upon  a  foreign  shore; 
And  on  the  Mayflower's  deck  the  Pilgrims  stand, 
One  faith,  one  spirit  binding  all  the  band, 
That  soon  shall  quit,  for  aye,  their  native  land. 

Hark !  the  same  voices,  that  have  swelled  the  song 
Of  praise  to  God,  amid  the  assembled  throng, 
In  solemn  temples,  or  in  humble  domes, 
Around  the  hearth-stones  of  their  several  homes, 
Hymning,  are  heard  upon  the  air  to  float — 
Man's  organ  tone,  and  woman's  silvery  note, 
Blending  in  one;  and,  as  it  sinks  and  swells, 
The  music  mingles,  like  "those  evening  bells," 
When  in  the  lines  of  Erin's  bard  they  swing, 
And  here  we  have  the  parting  hymn  they  sing. 

HYMN 

Before  us,  Lord,  old  Ocean  spreads 
His  blue  and  boundless  plain, 

But,  wheresoe'er  Thy  spirit  leads, 
We  follow,  o'er  the  main. 


JOHN  PIERPONT  305 

From  persecution's  bolts  and  bars, 

Sustained  by  Thee,  we  turn, 
And,  guided  by  the  holy  stars, 

That  nightly  o'er  us  burn, 

We  go,  through  faith  in  Him  who  trod 

The  Galilean  sea, 
In  a  drear  wilderness,  O  God, 

In  peace  to  worship  Thee. 

For  us,  no  proud  cathedral  there 

Its  doors  shall  open  throw, 
Yet  can  we  lift  our  souls  in  prayer, 

While  kneeling  on  the  snow. 

We'd  rather  meet  stern  Winter's  frown, 

Wild  beast  and  savage  man, 
Than  take  the  mercy  of  the  crown, 

Or  bear  the  church's  ban. 

Rather  than  ask  the  grace  of  kings, 

Or  bow  to  their  decrees, 
We'll  trust  the  most  unstable  things — 

The  billow  and  the  breeze. 

For,  on  the  billow,  in  the  breeze, 

The  Almighty  Spirit  rides; 
And  aye  controls  by  His  decrees, 

The  tempests  and  the  tides. 

His  hosts, — the  winds,  the  lightning's  glare, — 

Encamp  around  the  just ; 
With  us  they  move, — their  guardian  care 

Is  our  defence  and  trust. 

Our  sail  unfurling  to  the  wings 

Of  all  the  winds  that  blow, 
We  leave  the  land  of  priests  and  kings, 

With  thee,  O  God,  to  go. 


306  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

The  land  of  priests  and  kings  those  Pilgrims  leave. 
See  their  frail  bark  the  white-capped  billows  cleave! 
Her  westering  canvas,  and  her  crowded  deck, 
With  growing  distance,  dwindle  to  a  speck, 

Till,  in  the  setting  sun,  she's  lost  to  sight, 
Pilgrim,  sail,  streamer, — all  absorbed  in  light! 

A  thistle  seed,  some  autumn  afternoon, 
Careering  in  its  gossamer  balloon, 
You  see  roll  o'er  you,  on  the  buoyant  air, 
To  fall,  you'll  say,  perhaps,  "the  Lord  knows  where." 
That  word,  my  friend,  tho'  not,  I'm  sure,  what  you 
Think  very  reverent,  is  yet  strictly  true. 
Though,  in  the  blaze  of  the  descending  sun, 
That  seed's  lost  sight  of, — the  All-seeing  One 
Directs  the  current  that  buoys  up  the  ball, 
Knows  whence  it  came,  and  sees  where  it  will  fall ; 
Knows,  for  He's  fixed,  the  place  for  it  to  rest, 
What  gust  would  lift,  what  breeze  would  bear  it  best; 
Knows  every  drop  of  water,  in  the  flood, 
That  wets  its  wings,  and  plants  it  in  the  mud, 
And  how  much  sunshine,  and  what  depth  of  snow, 
Must  warm  its  bed,  and  make  the  thistle  grow. 

Think  ye,  that  seed,  careering  through  the  air, 
Is  more  an  object  of  its  Maker's  care, 
Than  is  that  vanishing,  that  vanished  speck, 
That  air-borne  atom,  that  wave-wafted  deck, 
That  bears  within  it,  o'er  an  unknown  sea, 
The  seed  of  States,  of  nations  yet  to  be? 
Tells  he  the  thistle  where  to  strike  its  root, 
And  not  the  Pilgrim  where  to  plant  his  foot? 

No  flag  of  England  flapping  in  the  breeze, — 
That  flag  that  claims  the  empire  of  the  seas, — 


JOHN  PIERPONT  307 

Floats  at  his  stern ;  and,  carved  upon  his  bow, 

No  monarch  rides  and  bathes  in  brine  his  brow, 

With  every  sea  that  breaks  upon  the  deck ; 

No  armed  convoy  waits  upon  his  beck; 

Along  his  lonely  track,  though  pirates  prowl, 

No  iron  sea-dogs  at  his  port-holes  growl ; 

Not  even  does  "star-eyed  science"  point  his  way 

To   Hudson's   mouth  —  the   deep   and   broad   armed 

bay, 

Whose  ample  bosom  and  whose  sunny  smile, 
Give  warmth,  wealth,  beauty,  to  Manhattan's  isle, — 
Isle,  where  his  children,  yet  to  be,  shall  throng, 
To  applaud  his  faith,  in  eloquence  and  song. 
Yet,  though  he  comes  not  "as  the  conqueror  comes," 
With  braying  trumpets  and  the  roll  of  drums, 
Comes  not  by  science  guided  through  the  dark, 
With  guarding  fleets  around  his  helpless  bark, 
Still  is  there  found,  on  bleak  New  England's  shore, 
A  haven  for  him,  never  known  before ; 
And  there  the  Mayflower,  folding  up  her  wings, 
Like  a  tired  sea-bird,  round  her  anchor  swings. 

As  the  descending  sun  with  glory  floods 
The  eastern  waters,  and  the  western  woods, 
The  Pilgrim  band,  secure  from  storm  or  wreck, 
Man,  woman,  child,  stand  out  upon  the  deck. 
What  golden  sunshine !  how  much  brighter  skies 
Than  they  have  seen  before,  now  meet  their  eyes ! 
None  of  the  mists,  that  wrap  their  native  isle, 
Hang  round  these  shores; — the  woods,   the  waters, 

smile. 

Says  Elder  Brewster,  with  a  reverent  air, 
"Come,  let's  bow  in  thanksgiving  and  prayer." 
Was  there  e'er  uttered  by  the  lips  of  man, 
A  prayer  more  fervent,  since  the  world  began  ? 


308  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

It  is  not  ours,  with  hearts  and  faith  so  faint, 
To  give  the  language  of  that  Pilgrim  Saint : 
Our  faith,  his  discipline  has  never  borne : — 
Shall  we  thank  God  for  that,  or  shall  we  mourn  ? 
Mourn  that  we,  nourished  on  the  lap  of  ease, 
Have  let  the  spirit  of  devotion  freeze 
Upon  our  lips,  even  when  they  move  in  prayer  ? 
May  God  forgive  us,  and  yet  make  us  bear 
More  of  such  crosses  as  the  Pilgrims  bore, 
That  they  might  raise  an  altar  on  our  shore, 
If  that  will  fan  the  flame,  that  burns  so  dim 
In  our  cold  bosoms,  when  we  worship  Him ! 


The  prayer  is  closed.    The  Pilgrims  all  have  prayed ; 
And  o'er  them  evening  gently  throws  her  shade. 
Cold  from  the  icy  shore  the  night  winds  blow; 
From  their  chill  breath  they  all  retire  below, 
Save  the  night  watch;  but  ere  they  sink  to  sleep 
On  the  scarce  breathing  bosom  of  the  deep, 
This  evening  hymn,  with  voices  soft,  but  clear, 
They  pour  into  their  heavenly  Guardian's  ear : — 


HYMN 

The  winds,  O  God,  thy  voice  obey, 

The  raging  seas  thy  will : 
For  both  are  hushed,  when  Thou  dost  say, 

"Ye  tempests,  Peace !     Be  still !" 

Thy  hand  our  feeble  bark  upheld, 

When  tossed  upon  the  wave, 
Else  had  we,  when  the  billows  swelled, 

Found,  in  their  depths,  a  grave. 


JOHN  PIERPONT  309 

We've  seen  Thy  smile  on  yonder  woods, 

And  in  this  evening  sky, 
And  'mid  these  awful  solitudes, 

We're  safe  beneath  Thine  eye. 

Night,  o'er  us,  spreads  her  starry  wings, 

And  shall  her  vigil  keep, 
While,  after  all  our  wanderings, 

In  peace  Thy  servants  sleep. 

All  the  long  hours,  while  Darkness  holds  her  throne, 
The  sturdy  Standish  walks  the  deck  alone, 
To  guard  that  cradle  of  a  Commonwealth, 
From  foes,  advancing,  or  by  force  of  stealth ; 
While  thoughts  like  these,  though  not  in  words  ex- 
pressed, 
Steal  o'er  his  soul,  and  move  his  manly  breast 

"Beneath  my  feet  far  richer  treasures  lie, 
Than  floated  erst  in  Jason's  argosy ; 
Ay,  to  the  waiting  world,  a  greater  boon, 
Than  e'er  was  borne  by  a  three-decked  galleon : 
The  golden  fleece ! — the  silver  of  Peru ! 
What  are  they,  weighed  against  pure  souls  and  true? 
Those  might  spread  for  me  here  a  bed  of  down, 
Or  glitter  in  an  earthly  monarch's  crown; 
But  these  shall  be  remembered,  when  the  Lord 
Makes  up  his  jewels. — Is  not  that  his  word? 
And  by  the  Savior's  hand  shall  each  be  set, 
To  shine  forever  in  his  coronet: 
Nay,  each  bright  spirit,  like  an  orient  gem, 
Shall  sparkle  in  his  Father's  diadem. 
For,  here,  firm  faith,  unsullied  honor  rest, 
Woman's  true  heart,  and  beauty's  spotless  breast; 
In  all,  the  spirit  to  endure  and  dare; 
All  men  of  valor,  and  all  men  of  prayer, — 


310  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Men,  full  of  grace,  faith,  charity  and  hope, 
Who  want  no  bishop,  and  will  have  no  pope ; 
Who  want,  of  course,  no  bishop's  underlings ; 
Who're  their  own  priest, — ay,  their  own  priests  and 

kings; 

Men,  who're  resolved,  whatever  else  they  be, 
That  they,  in  soul  and  body,  will  be  free: — 
Who  ne'er  have  learned,  and  ne'er  will  learn,  to  cower, 
Either  to  royal  or  to  priestly  power; 
Men,  whom  the  Lord,  and  not  the  king,  made  great, 
And  who,  themselves,  are  both  a  church  and  state. 
While  o'er  such  spirits  I  keep  watch  and  ward, 
I  seem  to  see  an  angel  of  the  Lord, 
In  radiant  garments,  standing  at  the  bow, 
With  a  soft  glory  beaming  from  his  brow, 
And  hear  him  say,  in  solemn  tones  and  sweet, — 
An  embryo  empire  sleeps  beneath  thy  feet." 

Standish,  it  was  a  spirit  from  on  high, 
That,  to  thy  spirit,  spake  that  prophecy. 
While  watch  and  ward  thy  valiant  spirit  kept, 
Beneath  thy  feet  an  embryo  empire  slept. 

'Tis  morning;  a  dull,  cold  December  day, 
From  cheerless  skies,  conies  down  upon  the  bay, 
Revealing,  in  its  leaden-colored  light, 
Bare  rocks  and  leafless  forests  to  the  sight. 
No  craggy  barriers,  beetling  o'er  the  strand, 
Frowning  them  off,  before  the  Pilgrims  stand ; 
But  sandy  slopes,  with  granite  boulders  strown, 
Some  open  fields  where  Indian  corn  had  grown, 
Hill-sides  that  wait  the  culture  of  the  vine, 
Should  summer  ever  on  those  hill-sides  shine, 
But  wooded  now,  with  walnut,  oak  and  pine, 


JOHN  PIERPONT  311 

And  a  bold  height,  that  overlooks  the  plain, 
And  seaward  guards  the  harbor  and  the  main, 
Compose  the  panorama  of  the  ground, 
-Chosen  by  God,  and  by  the  Pilgrims  found, 
Where,  amid  rocks  and  sand  and  ice  and  snow, 
The  seeds  of  faith  and  liberty  shall  grow; 
Seeds,  that  have  floated  on  the  winds  and  waves, 
From  the  Old  World,  from  the  dead  martyrs'  graves, 
Now  to  be  planted,  by  an  exiled  few, 
On  this  cold,  barren  border  of  the  New. 

Ask  me  not,  friends,  to  hold  up,  in  my  rhyme, 
To  your  admiring  gaze,  that  most  sublime, 
That  most  affecting  picture,  ever  painted 
By  merely  human  hands,  however  sainted, 
Of  a  high  purpose,  ne'er  to  bend  the  knee 
To  man  or  God,  but  in  full  liberty, 
Which  the  stern  Pilgrim  fathers  of  our  land, 
And  Pilgrim  mothers,  working  hand  in  hand, 
Spread  on  the  canvas,  on  that  wintery  day, 
When,  from  the  Mayflower,  anchored  in  the  bay, 
The  Elder,  Brewster,  issuing  with  his  flock, 
Knelt  down,  and  worshipped  God  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

The  subject,  and  man's  power,  for  once  regard : — 
Historian,  artist,  orator  and  bard, 
Each  by  the  theme  inspired,  with  lofty  aim, 
Spurred  on  by  genius  and  the  hope  of  fame, 
With  pen,  brush,  burin,  all  the  charms  of  style, 
And  with  full  knowledge  of  the  facts,  the  while, 
And  with  a  courage  that  has  never  quailed, 
Have  tried  to  DO  that  landing; — all  have  failed. 

Ask  ye  the  why?    One  word  explains  the  whole, 
The  greatness  of  the  theme  was  in  the  soul — 


312  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

The  soul  of  those  who  brought  the  deed  about — 

And,  but  in  action,  can  not  be  brought  out. 

Brace  but  our  souls  up  to  the  pitch  of  theirs, 

Their  faith  in  God,  the  fervor  of  their  prayers, 

The  feeling,  nay,  the  knowledge,  that  in  prayer 

There  is  a  power,  that  is  no  other  where ; 

Their  trust  in  Truth,  that,  in  the  Almighty's  sight, 

He  is  almighty,  who  is  in  the  right; 

The  feeling  that  we're  bound  by  God's  command, 

That  none  can  take  us  out  of  His  strong  hand ; 

That  we  are  His,  whether  we  will  or  no ; 

That  we  can  never  true  allegiance  owe 

To  any  earthly  power,  whate'er  it  is, 

Whose  statutes  or  commands  conflict  with  His; — 

Their  fixed  resolve  that,  to  an  earthly  throne, 

They  would  submit,  but  on  these  terms  alone, 

That  it  should  ne'er  require  them  to  withdraw 

Their  faith  and  fealty  from  the  higher  law, 

Given  them  by  God ; — since  none  of  this  world's  great, 

No  legislator,  prince,  or  potentate, 

No  dignitary,  in  the  Church  or  State, 

Let  me  obey  his  mandates  e'er  so  well, 

Will  e'er  consent  to  take  my  place  in  hell, 

Or  bear  the  least  of  all  my  penalties, 

For  breaking  God's  commands,  in  keeping  his; — 

String  but  our  souls,  as  did  the  Pilgrims  theirs, 

To  this  high  pitch,  and,  in  the  world's  affairs, 

We  may  act  such  a  part  that,  they  who  claim 

A  kindred  with  us,  and  who  bear  our  name, 

May  glory  in  the  name  that  they  inherit, 

And  pride  themselves  in  their  forefathers'  spirit ; 

May  say,  "Those  men  of  eighteen  fifty-five, 

Had  souls  within  them,  that  were  all  alive;" 

Stamp,  on  their  children's  memories,  the  date 

Of  some  great  deed  that  made  their  fathers  great; 


JOHN  PIERPONT  3»3 

Call  on  their  orators  and  bards  to  give 
Our  names  a  place,  with  names  ordained  to  live; 
Talk  of  those  fathers, — say,  "Those  were  the  men, 
That  the  world  stood  in  need  of,  there  and  then ;" 
Say,  "Though  they  knew  no  bishop,  and  no  throne, 
They  knew  the  right,  and  though  they  went  alone, 
They  went  where  went  the  right,  through  fire  and 

frost 

Made  no  concessions,  counted  not  the  cost 
Of  noble  enterprise,  and  great  endeavor : — 
Self-sacrifice  for  truth — they  shunned  it  never: 
In  short,  those  men  were  worthy  of  the  stock 
They  sprung  from — that  great  hearted  Pilgrim  flock, 
That  landed  long  ago,  on  Plymouth  Rock." 

But,  can  the  deeds  of  those  old  men  be  painted  ? 
No !     By  his  own  deeds,  every  saint  is  sainted. 
Once  done,  the  deed  escapes  from  the  control 
Of  pen  or  paint,  and  lives  within  the  soul ; — 
The  soul  of  one  who  feels  a  kindred  flame, 
And  asks  of  Time  none  but  a  lasting  fame ; 
Of  one  who,  standing  where  the  Pilgrims  stood, 
And  knowing  that  his  veins  hold  Pilgrim  blood, 
Knows  he  can  feel,  too,  as  the  Pilgrims  felt, 
Kneel  in  the  spirit  that  old  Brewster  knelt; 
For  freedom  dare,  somewhat  as  Standish  dared; 
Care,  for  the  Commonwealth,  as  Carver  cared ; 
Bear  with  a  patient  spirit,  as  they  bore, 
Perils  at  sea,  and  perils  on  the  shore ; 
Aspire  to  serve  the  Lord  as  they  aspired ; 
With  all  the  Pilgrims'  fiery  zeal  be  fired ; 
Meet  on  a  wild  and  barren  shore,  the  gaunt 
And  hungry  wolf, — inexorable  Want — 
To  find  the  ark  of  God  a  resting  place, 
Look  Indians,  frost,  and  famine  in  the  face; 


314  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Resign  the  loved  ones  nearest  to  his  side, 
Give  to  the  grave,  as  Standish  gave,  his  bride, 
And  die,  as  fifty  of  their  hundred  died. 

Such  be  our  souls,  and  we  may  well  discard 
The  labors  of  the  artist  and  the  bard: 
It  is,  indeed,  an  enviable  thing 
In  deathless  strains  of  deathless  deeds  to  sing, 
But  far  more  so,  according  to  my  creed, 
To  have  a  soul  like  his,  who  did  the  deed. 
A  painted  hero ! — it  is  well  to  see  one ; 
A  real  hero ! — better,  far,  to  be  one. 

We  said — "Resign  the  loved  ones  at  his  side, 
Give  to  the  grave,  as  Standish  gave,  his  bride," 
And,  we  have  said — "While  Darkness  held  her  throne, 
The  sturdy  Standish  walked  the  deck  alone" ; — 
Here  let  us  add — while  others  found  repose, 
Under  his  watchful  eye,  his  lovely  Rose, 
Bound  to  his  heart  by  cords  that  ne'er  decay, 
Beneath  that  deck,  sleepless  and  fading  lay; 
One  little  month, — and  on  that  icy  shore, 
Death's  cold  hand  touched  her,  and  she  bloomed  no 
more! 

Late  had  she  bowed  over  her  father's  grave; 
Still  later,  with  her  husband,  crossed  the  wave; 
Given  herself  to  him,  in  her  beauty's  pride, 
Bloomed  on  his  bosom, — faded  there, — and  died. 

Her  grave  is  ready, — In  the  bitter  air 
All  things  are  frozen, — but  the  funeral  prayer. 
While  all,  without,  is  bound  in  icy  chains, 
Her  famished  sisters,  round  her  cold  remains, 


JOHN  PIERPONT  315 

With  stricken  hearts,  their  only  offering, 

Come,  and  in  sorrow's  tones,  this  requiem  sing : — 


REQUIEM 

Dear  sister,  thou  hast  paid  the  debt,  that  all  of  us  must  pay ; 
The  beauty  of  thy  blooming  cheek,  soon  hath  it  passed 

away; 

Thy  sun,  that  rose  so  beautiful,  is  early  clouded  in, 
And  thou  hast  left  us,  in  a  world  of  sorrow  and  of  sin. 


Dear  sister,  thou  hast  meekly  borne  the  sufferings  of  thy 

lot; 
If  thou  hast  ever  breathed  a  murmur,  we  have  heard  it 

not; 
But  we  have  heard  thy  prayer,  that  God  would  make  thy 

husband  strong, 
To  bear  the  burden,  that  his  heart  would  have  to  bear  ere 

long. 

Dear  sister,  we  shall  mourn  our  loss ;  but  this  shall  soothe 

our  pain, 

That,  though  thy  death's  a  loss  to  us,  to  thee  it  is  a  gain ; 
For,  now  this  desert  thou  hast  left,  and  passed  the  Jordan 

o'er, 
"Sweet  fields"  await  thy  weary  feet,  on  Canaan's  blissful 

shore. 


Thy  spirit,  dear,  was  borne  away  by  Pestilence  and  Dearth ; 
And  now  thy  body  must  be  laid  beneath  the  frozen  earth ; 
Thy  brethren  to  its  rest  must  bear  it,  through  the  biting 

blast ; 
And  well  we  know,  of  all  they  bear,  thine  will  not  be  the 

last. 


316  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

But  oh,  how  great  a  thing  it  is,  like  thee,  to  pass  away ! 
Like  thee  to  be  prepared  for  death  and  for  the  judgment 

day! 
Through  "the  dark  valley"  when  we  pass,  though  each 

must  go  alone, 
It  is  our  faith,  that  we  shall  meet,  before  the  Judge's 

throne. 

Look  at  those  women,  on  that  dreary  shore ! 

You  know  what  they  could  bear,  by  what  they  bore. 

O,  with  what  faith  and  love  they  met  their  lot ! 

What  should  a  woman  be,  that  they  were  not  ? 

Rendering,  in  every  sphere,  the  tribute  due, 

All  true  to  God,  all  to  their  husbands  true. 

For  these  had  they  resigned  home,  country,  ease, 

Encountered  all  the  perils  of  the  seas; 

The  rocks  and  breakers  on  a  leeward  shore, 

Had  braved, — the  tempest's  and  the  surge's  roar, 

And  the  wild  beasts,  that  through  the  forest  prowl, 

The  bear's  marauding,  and  the  gaunt  wolf's  howl, 

The  stealthy  savage,  aiming  at  their  life 

The  arrow,  tomahawk  or  scalping  knife; — 

Add  to  all  this — what  never  has  been  told — 

The  driving  snow  storms,  and  the  bitter  cold 

Of  a  New  England  winter !     Think  how,  then, 

These  Pilgrim  women  met  all  this,  like  men ! 

Nay,  when  their  cheeks  were  wan  for  want  of  bread, 

How  these  same  women  made  the  sick  man's  bed, 

Spoke  to  him  words  of  Hope,  when  blank  Despair 

Was  shutting  out  what  little  light  was  there, — 

Cheered  up  the  sinking  spirits  of  the  man, 

And  soothed  his  pains  as  none  but  woman  can ; 

And  tell  me, — shall  those  Pilgrim  women  not 

Be  aye  remembered? — Can  they  be  forgot? 

Were  they  not  helps  meet  for  those  Pilgrim  men? 

Oh,  yes !     "When  shall  we  look  upon  their  like  again?" 


JOHN  PIERPONT  317 

Their  like  again  ?     Whene'er  occasion  calls ! 

In  Labor's  cottage,  or  in  Pleasure's  halls, 

Whether  she's  dancing  in  the  gay  saloon, 

Or  walking  with  you  by  the  silver  moon, 

Or  leading  forth  the  steps  of  tottering  age, 

Or  standing,  thoughtful,  by  the  maniac's  cage, 

Watching  a  sister  on  her  dying  bed, 

Or  dressing  her  for  burial  when  she's  dead, 

Has  she  not  met  the  occasion?     Has  she  quailed 

At  any  toil  or  peril  that  assailed? 

When  has  a  daughter  of  those  mothers  failed? 

Let  not  Oblivion,  then,  those  women  shroud ; 
Or,  round  them,  draw  her  curtain  or  her  cloud. 
'Tis  well  our  Pilgrim  fathers  to  revere; 
But  let  us  hold  our  Pilgrim  mothers  dear; 
For,  but  for  them,  which,  of  us,  had  been  here? 

The  vision  of  those  stars,  that,  in  the  dawn 
Of  Freedom's  day  arose,  is  now  withdrawn. 
Those  morning  stars,  those  heralds  of  the  day, 
That  o'er  our  land  now  pours  its  golden  ray, 
Are  seen  no  more. — But  what  a  glory  burns, 
And  shall  forever,  round  their  holy  urns ! 
How  dim  the  strongest  light,  that  ever  shone 
Round  men  who  "wade  through  slaughter  to  a  throne," 
Compared  with  what  shall  glorify  their  graves, 
So  long  as  Ocean  towards  them  rolls  his  waves ! 
So  long  as,  looking  o'er  the  stormy  bay, 
Their  narrow  house  is  sprinkled  with  its  spray! 

"Their  narrow  house !"     What  monumental  pile 
Towers  o'er  their  dust,  and  marks,  for  many  a  mile, 
Their  resting  place?     What  simple  head-stone  shows 
The  stranger,  where  their  mouldering  bones  repose? 


318  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

"None,"  must  we  say?     Is  not  their  place  of  rest 

Worth  being  noted, — consecrated — blest? 

O'er  their  neglected  graves  sea  breezes  pass ; — 

We  hear  them  sighing  through  the  tall,  dead  grass; — 

Say — in  that  sighing,  does  the  thoughtful  ear 

No  tone  reproachful  from  those  sleepers  hear? 

When  one  has  led  of  Freedom's  host  the  van,1 
Or  fallen,  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of  man, 
The  heart  hath  never  willingly  forgot 
The  holy  day,  the  consecrated  spot, 
Marked  by  an  act  of  valor  or  of  faith, 
Or  by  a  noble  deed,  or  noble  death. 

Thus  Joshua,  standing  on  the  Desert's  edge, 
When  of  his  people  he  had  taken  a  pledge, 
That  from  Jehovah  they  would  never  swerve, 
But  that  Him  only  they  would  love  and  serve, 
Set  up  a  stone,  and  said,  "Consider,  now, 
This  stone  hath  heard  the  covenant  and  vow 
That  ye  have  made  to  God ;  and  it  shall  bear 
Witness  against  you,  should  it  ever  hear, 
Amid  these  solemn  groves,  these  arches  dim, 
Your  vows  go  up  to  any  God  but  Him." 

By  those  who  sail,  as  I  have  done,  with  joy, 
Along  the  shore  where  once  stood  ancient  Troy, 
Two  grassy  mounds  upon  the  right  are  seen : — 
Once,  the  Scamander  may  have  flowed  between. 
Those  mounds,  by  Homer  seen,  still  standing  there, 
The  names  of  Ajax  and  Patroclus  bear. 

1  Some  forty  or  fifty  of  the  secrating  the  monument,  erected 

following  lines  are  taken,  with  there  over  the  remains  of  those 

some     alterations,     from     the  who  fell  at  Concord,  in  the  first 

poem  that  I  delivered  at  Acton,  battle  in  the  war  of  American 

Mass.,  on  the  occasion  of  con-  Independence. — J.  P. 


JOHN  PIERPONT  319 

Thousands  of  years  o'er  those  green  mounds  have 

rolled ; 

A  million  mornings  touched  their  tops  with  gold ; 
A  million  nights  their  dewy  tears  shall  shed 
On  those  memorials  of  the  honored  dead. 

On  a  low  shelving  rock,  that  breaks  the  waves, 
That  roll  in  from  the  East,  when  Eurus  raves, 
And  gives  smooth  water,  on  the  windward  side, 
To  ships,  that  in  the  port  of  Athens  ride, 
There  stands  a  marble  structure.     Seen  from  this, 
The  island  and  the  gulf  of  Salamis 
Lie  just  before  you.     Off,  upon  your  left, 
The  Persian  keels,  the  blue  ^gean  cleft: 
And  there  the  Persian's  fleet  was  swept  away : 
And,  in  remembrance  of  that  glorious  day, 
There  stands,  and  looks  out  on  the  Grecian  seas, 
And  there  shall  stand,  thy  tomb,  Themistocles ! 

On  many  a  spot  of  our  own  native  land, 
Sacred  to  valor  and  to  freedom,  stand 
The  granite  obelisk,  the  marble  pile, 
Hailed  by  the  patriot  heart,  for  many  a  mile, 
As  upright  witnesses,  who  lift  their  head, 
To  tell  the  world  where  sleep  the  honored  dead. 

Prophetic  whispers  steal  upon  my  ear, 
And  seem  to  say,  that  not  another  year, 
Shall  the  calm  moon  and  ever  watchful  stars 
Drive,  o'er  the  Pilgrims'  graves,  their  viewless  cars, 
And  see  those  graves  neglected.     They  have  seen, 
Too  many  years,  the  tall,  thin  grass  wave  green, 
And  the  dew  sparkle,  like  a  brilliant  gem, 
And  hoar-frost  lay  its  white  sheet  over  them, 


320  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

And  heard  the  night  winds,  and  chill  autumn's  gale 
O'er  them  pour  forth  their  melancholy  wail, 
And  Winter,  with  his  mantle  o'er  them  spread, 
Howl  his  long,  stormy  requiem  o'er  the  dead. 

No  longer  be  it  thus !     But  o'er  the  grave, 
Where  sleep  the  true,  the  holy  and  the  brave, 
Let  monumental  stones  their  vigils  keep, 
To  tell  the  world  the  names  of  those  who  sleep 
Within  their  shadow,  and  to  hold  in  trust 
The  sacred  treasure  of  their  garnered  dust. 

And  who  may  ask  their  children  that  the  spot, 
Where  they  repose,  be  marked,  if  they  may  not? 
Who  build  the  strongest  bulwarks  of  the  State? 
Who  is  the  greatest  one  amongst  the  great? 
Not  he  who  o'er  the  field  triumphant  treads, 
Or  builds  up  pyramids  of  human  heads ; — 
Your  Caesar,  pointing  his  praetorian  swords, 
Your  Tamerlane,  heading  his  Tartar  hordes, 
But  he  who  dares,  in  kings'  and  bigots'  spite, 
Stand,  and  do  bloodless  battle  for  the  right; 
By  blessing,  binds  his  people  to  his  throne, 
And  chains  their  wills,  by  having  chained  his  own, 
To  the  high  will  of  HIM,  who  curbs  the  spheres, 
And  makes  them  mark  his  own  eternal  years: — 
And,  as  His  greatest  glory  ever  springs, 
Not  from  the  fact  that  He  is  King  of  kings, 
But  that  the  greatest  good,  from  all  his  plans, 
Results  for  aye, — so  does  the  greatest  man's. 

See  the  results,  then,  of  those  Pilgrims'  cares, 
Toils,  perils,  sufferings,  sacrifices,  prayers, 
And  offerings,  laid  where,  first,  in  fear  they  trod, 
Upon  the  altar  of  their  faith  in  God. 


JOHN  PIERPONT  321 

And,  that  herein  we  may  not  judge  amiss, 
Compare  the  Pilgrims'  landing  day  with  this. 
Dense  forests,  with  their  axes,  cleared  away, 
Their  dark  recesses  opened  to  the  day, 
And,  in  their  stead,  is  Amalthea's  horn 
Filled  and  o'errunning  with  the  golden  corn. 
Then,  in  a  single  port,  a  single  sail 
Stood,  stiff  with  ice;  now,  not  a  seaward  gale 
Blows  from  our  harbors,  for  a  thousand  miles, 
But  bears  our  bounty  to  the  distant  isles; 
Nor  one  blows  landward,  but,  behold  it  brings 
The  wealth  of  nations  on  its  burdened  wings ; 
Nations,  whose  sons  are  bleeding,  or  have  bled, 
In  battle,  and  now  look  to  us  for  bread. 
For  lo !  our  harvests,  and  our  thousand  mills, 
Our  sheep,  our  cattle,  from  our  thousand  hills, 
Feed  now  the  hosts  that  Western  Europe  pours, 
In  clouds  and  thunder,  on  the  Euxine's  shores. 

In  one  square  house,  twenty  by  twenty  feet, 
With  a  thatched  roof,  to  shield  from  snow  and  sleet, — 
A  roof,  that,  one  cold  January  day, 
While  Carver,  Bradford,  sick  beneath  it  lay, 
Fired  by  a  spark,  entirely  burnt  away, — 
In  that  square  house,  their  bed-room,  chapel,  hall, 
The  which  their  "great  new  rendezvous"  they  call, 
The  Pilgrim  Fathers  their  first  Sabbath  kept ; 
There  they  all  worshipped  God,  there  ate,  there  slept. 

Now,  from  a  myriad  mansions,  large  and  fair, 
With  the  first  smoke  that  curls  into  the  air, 
Rises  the  incense  of  domestic  prayer, 
Where'er  the  hill-sides  slope,  the  rivers  run, 
From  the  Penobscot  to  the  Oregon : 


322  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

While  Gothic  temples,  with  their  marble  spires, 

Reared  by  the  children  of  those  Pilgrim  sires, 

In  splendid  cities,  see  the  serious  throng, 

Like  a  deep  river  calmly  flow  along, 

And  pour  into  their  gates,  with  prayer  and  choral  song. 

Where  the  poor  Pilgrim  heard  the  Indian's  yell, 
The  school-house  stands,  and  children  learn  to  spell; 
Or  the  steam-whistle  tells  of  coming  cars, 
Or  science  sits  and  counts  and  weighs  the  stars. 
Where,  then,  adorned  with  feathers  and  tattoo, 
The  Indian  paddled  his  birch-bark  canoe; 
Now,  without  sails,  a  gorgeous  palace  rides, 
By  no  winds  wafted,  turning  with  no  tides, 
But  bearing  bravely  on  its  precious  freight — 
The  brave,  the  wise,  the  beautiful,  the  great — 
The  strongest  streams,  the  broadest  oceans  o'er, 
Landing  them  safe,  upon  the  farthest  shore. 
Where,  in  a  wigwam  then,  the  Pilgrim  saw 
A  lazy  Indian  and  his  laboring  squaw, 
Living  'mid  smoke  and  smut,  and  steam  and  stench, 
Without  a  chair,  a  bedstead  or  a  bench, 
There,  now  (in  silence  passing  princely  domes,) 
Are  seen  ten  thousand  hospitable  homes, 
Where  pure  domestic  love  and  peace  are  found, 
Leaning  on  Labor's  arm,  while,  all  around, 
Health,  strength  and  beauty,  and  true  faith  abound : 
While,  over  all, — no  vain,  no  useless  thing — 
Spreads  pure  Religion  her  protecting  wing, 
And  bids  the  dweller  of  those  happy  homes, 
Whene'er  he  rests  there,  or  whene'er  he  roams, 
Not  to  forget,  that  from  his  native  stock, 
All  this  has  come ; — even  from  the  little  flock, 
That  stood  up,  stark  and  stern,  and  prayed  on  Ply- 
mouth Rock. 


JOHN  PIERPONT  323 

But  the  same  spirit — the  same  moral  nerve — 
That  earned  this  greatness,  can  alone  preserve. 


Sons  of  the  Pilgrims !  need  ye  to  be  told, 
It  takes  "perpetual  shoulders"  to  uphold 
"The  exceeding  weight  of  glory,"  that  is  theirs, 
And  prove  your  title,  as  your  fathers'  heirs? 

Will  ye,  while  bending  reverent  o'er  their  graves, 
Become  the  vassals  of  slave-hunting  knaves? 
Grow  slaves  yourselves,  by  making  others  slaves? 
Rivet  the  broken  chain,  and  ply  the  rod, 
That  galls  and  cuts  the  children  of  the  God, 
Your  Pilgrim  fathers  worshipped  and  obeyed, 
Because  so  bidden  by  laws  that  men  have  made  ? 

Children  of  the  Pilgrim  flock, 
Offshoots  of  the  Pilgrim  stock, 
Planted,  erst,  on  Plymouth  Rock, 

By  the  surging  main ; 
When  upon  that  shore  they  dwelt, 
When  upon  that  rock  they  knelt, 
Would  those  men  have  lived,  and  felt 

Slavery's  galling  chain? 

When  they  all  were  kneeling  there, 
And  the  incense  of  their  prayer 
Rose  upon  the  frosty  air — 

From  a  wigwam's  shade, 
Had  they  heard  the  savage  call, 
"Hunt  ye  down  that  fleeing  thrall ! 
Seize,  and  hold  him,  one  and  all !" 

Would  they  have  obeyed  ? 


324  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Had  they  done  it,  would  they  dare 
Kneel  again,  and  breathe  a  prayer 
To  the  God  they  worshipped  there? — 

Had  they  prayed,  would  He, 
Who  their  steps  had  thither  led, 
Who  his  guardian  wing  had  spread 
Over  their  defenceless  head, 

On  the  wintery  sea, 

His  all-gracious  ear  have  bowed  ? 
Had  they  called  on  HIM  aloud, 
Would  the  column  and  the  cloud, 

Once  to  Israel  given, 
Have  descended,  as  their  guide, 
Through  those  forests,  dark  and  wide, 
When  to  Thee,  O  God,  they  cried, 

And  were  heard  of  Heaven? 

Hark!  that  savage  call  we  hear! 
Now,  'tis  ringing  in  our  ear ! 
See,  the  panting  thrall  is  near! 

Shall  we  play  the  hound? 
Shall  we  join  the  unleashed  pack, 
Yelping  on  a  brother's  track? 
Shall  we  seize  and  drag  him  back 

Fainting,  bleeding,  bound? 

Ay! — when  we're  in  love  with  chains; 
Ay! — when  in  our  bastard  veins, 
No  drop  of  the  blood  remains 

Of  those  Pilgrim  men ! 
Ay, — when  our  own  backs  we  strip, 
That  what  blood  we  have  may  drip, 
For  the  lordlings  of  the  whip, — 

Then, — and  not  till  then ! 


JOHN  PIERPONT  325 

O,  Thou  Holy  One  and  Just, 
Thou,  who  wast  the  Pilgrims'  trust, 
Thou,  who  watchest  o'er  their  dust 

By  the  moaning  sea; 
By  their  conflicts,  toils  and  cares, 
By  their  perils  and  their  prayers, 
By  their  ashes, — make  their  heirs 

True  to  them  and  Thee. 


THE   PURITAN   SCHEME  OF  NATIONAL 
GROWTH 

* 
RICHARD   SALTER  STORRS 


RICHARD   SALTER  STORRS 
(1821-1900.) 

THE  last  of  these  literary  celebrations  was  held  in  1857,  when 
Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs,  then  a  young  pastor  in  Brooklyn,  made  the 
address.  Dr.  Storrs  was  a  native  of  Braintree,  Massachusetts. 
He  was  graduated  at  Amherst,  and  entered  the  office  of  the 
Hon.  Rufus  Choate.  He  soon  decided,  however,  to  follow  the 
profession  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  preparing  for  the  min- 
istry at  Andover. 

Dr.  Storrs's  volume  "The  Constitution  of  the  Human  Soul"  had 
been  published  in  1857.  He  was  already  prominent,  but  his 
presence  was  yet  to  make  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  noted 
throughout  the  land.  There  he  served,  with  increasing  honor, 
through  a  devoted  pastorate,  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  which 
raised  the  entire  city  to  a  stupendous  burst  of  enthusiasm.  As 
successor  of  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  in  the  presidency  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  he  made  some  of  his  greatest 
occasional  addresses.  He  was  famous  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
his  region  and  his  denomination,  as  a  master  of  English,  a 
deep  student,  a  man  of  strong  and  broad  thought,  and  a  fearless 
leader. 


ORATION 


Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Society: 

WE  have  met  to-night  for  an  office  of  commemora- 
tion, and  of  filial  piety.  We  have  met  as  repre- 
sentatives of  that  portion  of  our  country  from  whose 
loins  we  have  sprung,  whose  influences  we  venerate,  to 
whose  traditions  we  confess  our  allegiance,  and  to 
whose  freshly  remembered  homes  our  hearts  untrav- 
elled  still  return,  from  the  midst  of  all  newer  attractions 
and  delights.  Without  even  the  cold  that  comes  out  of 
the  north  to  remind  us  of  the  emigrants  who  faced  it 
first  on  the  coasts  of  Plymouth,  and  with  all  things  else 
that  meet  or  surround  us  set  in  singular  contrast  with 
the  scenes  they  confronted, — these  long  and  echoing 
streets  of  trade,  these  wharves  which  are  fringed  with 
the  shipping  of  a  continent,  these  avenues  lined  with 
luxurious  homes,  the  halls  of  justice,  the  many  churches, 
the  great  institutes  of  learning,  of  charity,  and  of  plea- 
sure, this  audience  itself,  and  the  room  we  are  gathered 
in,  all  conspiring  to  show  the  advance  we  have  realized, 
and  reminding  us  only  by  the  law  of  antithesis  of  the 
sheeted  and  desolate  hills  which  they  saw  as  they  drew 
to  the  end  of  their  perilous  voyage, — so  we  come,  to 
lay  our  fresh  garland  on  the  graves  of  the  Departed, 
and  with  praising  hearts,  to  recount  the  indebtedness 
we  acknowledge  to  them ! 

329 


330  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

It  is  an  office  which  many  may  covet,  but  which  none 
should  condemn ;  which  the  intimate  instincts  of  nature 
seem  to  prompt;  and  which  every  descendant  from  an 
ancestry  deemed  by  him  noble  and  pure  should  emulate 
and  applaud.  Surely,  if  even  the  ancient  world  has 
honored  the  memory  of  the  great  ones  departed  with 
festival  and  procession ;  if  its  finest  poetry  has  celebrated 
them,  in  lyric  grace,  in  elegiac  pathos,  and  in  the  long- 
resounding  measures  of  epic  verse ;  if  its  noblest  art  has 
been  dedicated  to  them,  in  pictorial  portraiture,  in  stat- 
ues, and  in  tombs;  if  its  very  legislation  has  been  full 
of  their  influence,  as  its  history  of  their  deeds;  and  if, 
in  all  the  great  crises  of  its  progress,  in  the  forum,  on 
the  battle-field,  on  decks  that  reeled  swimming  in  blood, 
as  the  very  palpable  scales  of  Destiny, — if  here  the  in- 
fluence of  the  earlier  heroes,  that  had  brooded  invisibly 
over  all  peaceful  years,  has  seemed  to  rush  forth  con- 
spicuous and  embodied,  till  inaudible  battalions  were 
felt  sweeping  the  field,  and  a  dusky  legion  hovered 
everywhere  on  the  air, — surely,  it  may  be  pardoned  to 
us,  in  these  ages  and  lands  which  Christ  hath  taught, 
that  we  recall  the  great  character  of  our  Ancestors, 
and  offer  to  them  our  humbler  praise! 

And  yet  we  are  here  not  only  as  vividly  mindful  of  a 
Past,  but  as  conscious  of  a  Present,  and  hopeful  for  a 
Future.  We  are  here  as  not  divorced  in  any  degree 
from  the  nation  we  are  part  of,  although  the  province 
which  gave  us  birth  claims  our  prime  love.  And  I 
trust,  and  doubt  not,  that  we  all  of  us  are  here,  as  aware 
that  the  grandest,  the  only  really  worthy  and  perma- 
nent tribute  we  can  offer  to  our  ancestors,  is  the  life  we 
accomplish,  the  work  we  do,  to  promote  the  ends  which 
were  sacred  to  them.  "Man  celebrates,"  says  Richter, 
"to  his  beloved  ones  a  more  beautiful  festival  when  he 
dries  the  tears  of  others  than  when  he  onlv  sheds  his 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  331 

own;  and  the  most  beautiful  flower  and  cypress-gar- 
land which  we  can  hang  upon  loved  monuments  is  a 
fruit-garland  of  good  deeds."  And  what  is  thus  true 
of  the  personal  representative  of  a  parent  deceased 
must  much  more  be  true  of  a  succeeding  generation; 
whose  force  has  been  derived  to  them,  their  culture 
accomplished,  and  their  character  shaped,  for  great 
public  purposes,  and  to  whom  these  appeal  with  a  su- 
preme voice. 

That  people  which  is  smit  with  such  idolatry  of  the 
Past  that  it  pauses  before  this  in  passive  admiration, 
and  renders  it  the  cheap  tribute  of  verbal  adulation, 
while  hindered  from  attempting  fresh  works  for  itself, 
only  brings  upon  itself  a  keener  contempt  for  the  con- 
trast it  offers  with  its  own  Heroic  Age.  Inspiration  is 
not  chartered  to  names  or  blood.  It  flies,  air-pinioned, 
over  the  earth ;  and  seeks  its  home,  and  its  place  of  en- 
thronement, in  every  congenial  human  soul.  And  so 
they  are  the  real  representatives  of  our  Fathers — we 
are  such  only  if  accomplishing  this — who  interfuse  their 
fire  and  force,  their  dignity,  patience,  and  forecast  of 
faith,  into  modern  endeavors,  and  who  execute  a  work, 
on  the  present  arena,  completive  of  that  which  they 
wrought  nobly  two  centuries  ago!  Where  they  con- 
tributed to  found  a  nation,  and  to  organize  its  elements, 
we  are  called  to  contribute  to  advance  and  upbuild  it. 
The  seeds  were  theirs,  to  implant  and  protect  The  al- 
ready rooted  trunk  is  ours,  to  cherish  and  defend. 
Within  narrow  boundaries  lay  the  area  for  their  work. 
To  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  to  the  wealthy  slopes  of  the 
far  South-West,  extend  our  realms.  But  our  work 
shall  only  represent  theirs,  and  be  its  meet  and  great 
memorial,  when  we  do  it  with  the  same  self-denial  and 
energy,  the  same  wisdom,  fidelity,  and  inflexible  cour- 
age, which  they  showed  first;  when  we  show  ourselves 


332  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

their  successors  by  a  spiritual  lineage,  better  than  the 
physical,  through  hearts  baptized  with  the  qualities  of 
their  character,  and  minds  informed  with  the  wisdom 
of  their  plans. 

And  we  are  here  to  take  note  of  this  fact,  and  to  gird 
ourselves  afresh  for  the  effort  which  it  claims.  Not 
merely  to  honor  the  Past  by  our  praises,  but  to  quicken 
ourselves  to  emulate  that  Past,  by  a  kindred  heroism  in 
a  similar  work — that  is  our  errand ;  the  only  one  which 
could  justify  our  assemblage;  the  only  one  we  can  any 
of  us  accept ! 

I  propose  then  to  ask  you  to  consider  for  a  little  THE 
PURITAN  SCHEME  OF  NATIONAL  GROWTH  ;  that  which 
they  whom  we  honor  were  accustomed  to  recognize, 
and  which  they  strove  to  realize  and  incorporate  in  their 
own  institutions.  By  considering  this,  we  may  ani- 
mate ourselves,  perhaps,  in  attempting  our  own  great 
office  in  the  world,  and  may  at  the  same  time,  from  a 
higher  point  of  view,  examine  and  estimate  the  work 
of  our  Fathers.  The  theme  opens  widely  and  brightly 
before  us.  It  runs  not  only  back  in  its  relations,  but 
forward  also,  over  that  Future  beneath  whose  lifting 
shadows  we  are  met.  It  is  the  theme,  I  cannot  but 
think,  which  they  whom  we  celebrate  would  themselves 
have  suggested.  With  perfect  fitness  to  the  place  and 
the  occasion,  it  challenges  our  thoughts. 

It  was  one  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  our  Fathers 
concerning  National  Growth,  that  this  should  proceed 
from,  and  be  animated  by,  A  DEFINITE  AND  POSITIVE 
SPIRITUAL  LIFE,  diffused  through  the  State;  inter- 
penetrating all  parts  of  it;  and  manifesting  its  influ- 
ence more  or  less  distinctly  in  all  public  and  pri- 
vate activities. — Whether  consciously  or  not,  this  idea 
always  wrought  in  them.  It  is  seen  not  only  in  ser- 
mons and  in  journals,  but  in  parts  of  their  statutes. 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS          333 

It  moulded  and  quickened  their  whole  frame  of  gov- 
ernment 

With  all  their  scrupulous  deference  to  the  forms 
which  they  had  established,  and  to  which  they  required 
strict  submission  in  others,  such  forms  were  only  im- 
portant to  them  as  incorporating  and  manifesting  this 
spirit  of  life  which  they  sought  to  make  paramount, 
and  as  tending  to  distribute  and  to  quicken  this  in 
others.  The  undeniable  fact,  too,  of  their  judicial  in- 
tolerance— which  was  often  combined,  in  singular  viv- 
idness, with  their  personal  kindness  toward  those  who 
dissented  from  the  religion  of  the  State  and  its  domi- 
nant ideas,  toward  Romanists,  Prelatists,  Baptists,  and 
Friends — this  intolerance  sprang  directly  from  the  fact 
that  they  conceived  the  SPIRIT  of  the  State  to  be  more 
important  than  numbers  or  wealth,  or  the  friendship  of 
neighbors;  and  they  would  not  allow  this,  if  legislation 
could  prevent  it,  to  be  impaired  by  hostile  influence. 

Undoubtedly,  they  committed  an  error,  and  a  grave 
one,  in  applying  their  principle.  They  exercised  an  au- 
thority which  in  others  they  had  denounced;  and  as  a 
mere  matter  of  prudence  they  erred.  For  a  doctrine, 
whether  correct  or  erroneous,  is  always  too  elastic,  and 
too  self-diffusive,  to  be  trodden  down  by  power.  It 
springs  back,  with  only  a  mightier  rebound,  from  be- 
neath every  blow,  and  appeals  to  wider  sympathies  the 
more  it  is  oppressed.  So  all  the  doctrines  which  the 
Puritans  opposed  only  gained  wider  prevalence  through 
the  force  which  they  used  in  resisting  their  spread; 
while,  by  their  public  using  of  this,  they  brought  a  dark 
shadow  over  their  fame. 

But  while  we  recognize  without  flinching  the  fact 
that  they  erred,  let  us  recognize  also  as  clearly  the  fact 
that  it  was  not  from  pride,  from  passion,  or  from  malice. 
It  was  in  the  excess  of  a  high  and  pure  impulse.  It 


334  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

was  through  pushing  to  a  doubtful,  and  at  last  an 
injurious  conclusion,  a  principle  that  was  right,  philo- 
sophical, noble,  and  when  held  in  due  limits,  most  fruit- 
ful of  good.  A  State  compacted,  from  its  infancy  on- 
ward, by  a  pure  and  permeating  spiritual  life;  into 
which  should  enter  a  deep  love  of  Freedom,  combining 
with  reverence  and  conscientious  regard  for  the  public 
order,  with  both  these  impregnated  by  religious  con- 
victions, and  culminating  naturally  in  the  fervors  of 
piety;  a  State  which  should  be  coextensive  with  the 
Church,  and  should  carry  that  out,  in  its  natural  ex- 
pansion, whithersoever  it  went; — this  was  the  State  at 
which  the  Puritans  aimed.  In  enthusiasm  for  this,  they 
had  crossed  the  sea,  and  attempted  the  establishment 
of  a  nation  dissevered  from  all  traditions;  a  nation 
as  recent  on  the  face  of  the  earth  as  the  hemlock- 
tents  that  sheltered  its  founders; — an  enterprise  of  sin- 
gular height  and  reach,  and  which  looked  as  hazardous 
to  the  men  of  that  day  as  the  project  of  Columbus  to 
the  sailors  who  followed  him,  when  they  thought  them- 
selves in  danger  of  sailing  westward  over  the  actual  rim 
of  the  world.  They  were  not  afraid  of  the  bleakest 
coasts.  They  were  not  affrighted  by  the  icy  wastes 
which  met  them  at  Plymouth,  or  the  desolate  shores 
which  opened  at  Salem.  They  accepted,  without  hesi- 
tation or  diffidence,  the  rugged  hills  of  New  England 
for  their  home,  instead  of  the  more  inviting  latitudes 
for  which  they  had  sailed;  and  through  every  discour- 
agement they  were  inwardly  expectant  and  assured  of 
success,  if  only  they  might  ensure  the  prevalence,  from 
the  outset  onward,  of  this  high  and  inspiring  spiritual 
force,  of  Religious  conviction  and  a  conscientious  Pro- 
bity, throughout  their  communities. 

Their  sumptuary  laws,  regulating  dress,  furniture, 
and  food ;  their  rules  requiring  the  support  of  one  min- 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  335 

istry  by  the  people  of  a  town ;  their  absolute  refusal  to 
establish  hereditary  prerogatives  in  the  State,  or  to 
found  authority  upon  any  thing  but  character,  even 
when  they  were  tempted  most  strongly  to  do  this ;  their 
vigilant  supervision  and  censorship  of  literature,  which 
doomed  an  immoral  book  to  the  flames,  no  matter  how 
costly,  or  to  whom  it  belonged,  as  certainly  as  if  its 
pages  had  been  thick  with  the  virus  of  plague;  their 
great,  heroic,  wise  endeavors  to  found  a  Christian  Uni- 
versity at  Cambridge,  and  afterward  at  New  Haven — 
ALL  had  in  this  supreme  idea  their  point  of  final  resolu- 
tion and  union.  They  are  to  be  interpreted  and  mea- 
sured by  this.  And  in  this  the  Puritans  were  in  evi- 
dent harmony  with  the  great  laws  of  History,  and  with 
the  essential  and  organific  principles  which  govern  the 
constitution  of  Society  on  earth.  They  showed  them- 
selves philosophers,  and  spiritual  thinkers,  and  not 
mere  men  of  motion  and  of  action;  worthy  to  have 
sprung  from  the  age  of  Elizabeth ;  worthy  to  have  been 
trained  by  Providence  for  its  work! 

Life,  everywhere,  is  the  element  of  Growth;  and  a 
vigorous  and  governing  spiritual  life,  diffused  through 
the  State,  is  better  to  it,  a  thousand  times  over,  than 
any  material  helps  and  resources.  How  brightly  his- 
tory instructs  us  in  this ;  while  also  it  is  so  early  reached, 
and  so  clearly  established,  by  the  logic  of  analysis! 
The  principles  of  Truth,  of  Justice,  and  of  Liberty,  they 
receive  recognition  from  God's  supreme  mind.  They 
are  essentially  and  forever  involved  in  the  very  concep- 
tion of  a  co-operative  system  of  intelligent  beings.  The 
soul  of  man,  if  it  does  not  delight  to  express  them  it- 
self, yet  recognizes  their  glory  and  affirms  their  author- 
ity, and  demands  that  they  be  expressed  toward  it  by 
others.  It  never  will  rest,  in  inward  tranquillity,  until 
they  are;  and  whensoever  they  really  enter  a  man  or  a 


336  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

community,  and  are  accepted,  loved  and  realized,  their 
force  is  always  renewing  and  inspiring.  They  train, 
and  develop,  and  invigorate  to  new  action,  our  noblest 
powers.  Heroisms  are  born  of  them ;  self-sacrifice ;  en- 
durance; and  even  the  triumphs  of  genius  itself.  Lit- 
eratures spring  from  them ;  humanities ;  chivalries ;  and 
that  best  Art,  which  is  not  a  fabricated  ornament  for 
the  State,  but  a  product  of  its  force,  consubstantial  with 
its  strength.  They  erect  each  soul  to  a  nobler  stature, 
and  give  it  new  dignity,  manliness,  might  And  they 
make  a  PEOPLE  centrally  fearless,  spiritually  effective; 
enduing  them  with  intellectual  strength  and  resources, 
uniting  them  in  the  compact  of  a  living  agreement,  and 
shooting  into  them  a  force  of  enterprise  and  of  patience, 
not  from  any  aggregation  of  numbers  and  wealth,  but 
from  their  own  interior  assurance  of  what  is  Right,  of 
what  must  conquer! 

Often,  and  signally,  has  the  influence  of  these  been 
illustrated  in  History,  by  individuals  and  by  peoples. 
The  Spartan  strength,  which  sprang  from  simplicity 
and  sobriety  of  tastes,  from  a  sense  of  the  value  and 
beauty  of  Liberty,  and  from  a  devotion  to  the  rugged 
Peloponnesus  as  its  natural  home;  the  Roman  might, 
which,  more  than  by  any  other  fact  or  force,  was  built 
up  and  consolidated  by  the  prime  and  clear  recognition 
on  the  Tiber  of  the  twin  ideas  of  Liberty  and  Justice, 
as  the  right  of  the  citizen,  and  which,  with  all  the 
treasures  it  had  gathered,  and  the  conquests  it  had 
made,  went  down  irretrievably  into  crashing  destruc- 
tion, when  these  were  sacrificed;  in  times  more  recent, 
the  long-continued  independence  of  Switzerland,  that 
high-nested  Eagle,  watching  Europe  from  her  eyrie; 
the  growth,  and  greatness,  and  power  in  the  world,  of 
England  and  its  government; — how  all  illustrate  the 
same  fixed  law,  which  is  according  to  God's  nature 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS          337 

and  to  ours,  and  which  constitutes  the  essential  philos- 
ophy of  History,  that  the  vigorous  spiritual  force  of  a 
people  is  the  prime  condition,  the  organizing  power,  the 
architectonic  law  and  life,  of  its  enduring  and  grand 
prosperity!  Whatever  shuts  off  a  people  from  the 
world,  so  that  this  may  remain  in  them ;  as  the  isthmus 
that  shut  off  Sparta  from  Europe,  or  the  mountains 
that  circle  Switzerland  with  their  bulwarks,  and  make 
it  peculiar  and  separate  among  kingdoms,  or  the  seas 
that  intervene  between  England  and  the  Continent,  and 
secure  to  that  island  its  special  development;  this  be- 
comes to  such  a  people  the  most  constant  and  helpful 
auxiliary  to  their  strength.  And  whatever  expands  an 
empire  so  fast,  as  exploration  and  conquest  expanded 
the  Roman,  that  this  individualized  spirit  of  life  loses 
activity  or  loses  supremacy,  and  comes  to  be  either 
overwhelmed  or  exhaled  amid  physical  successes — that 
is  certainly  fatal  to  the  real  prosperity  and  permanence 
of  the  State.  It  buries  it,  like  Tarpeia,  beneath  the 
golden  trophies  piled  on  it.  It  leaves  it,  like  the  relics 
of  Charles  Borromeo,  simply  a  crowned  and  robed 
cadaver,  for  dissolution  to  destroy,  or  any  onset  of 
force  to  tear  apart. 

The  Puritans  were  right  then,  certainly,  manifestly 
right  and  wise,  in  seeking  to  make  an  inward  life  the 
centre  of  their  State,  the  element  and  energizing  prin- 
ciple of  its  growth ;  which  should  wind  itself  into,  and 
show  itself  amid,  all  subsequent  development,  and  work 
unseen  to  mould  and  build  the  ultimate  Power.  If  that 
life  was  not  the  rarest  and  noblest  that  we  can  conceive, 
it  was  certainly  better  than  any  that  had  preceded  it. 
It  had  more  of  majesty,  purity,  truth,  in  it;  more  of 
God's  inspirations,  and  of  God's  present  influence.  The 
devotion  they  cherished  to  personal  liberty,  to  public 
justice,  and  to  the  great  principles  and  laws  of  Religion, 


338  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

expressed  in  a  rude,  but  still  a  real  way,  the  grandest 
power  our  nature  can  hold ;  the  power  that  must  invig- 
orate and  protect  more  than  arts  or  diplomacies,  or  any 
memories  of  the  past.  They  were  right  in  not  fearing 
or  caring  what  opposed  them:  the  coldest  climate,  the 
most  rough  and  rocky  and  inhospitable  coast,  a  country 
with  neither  spontaneous  crops  nor  wealthy  mines,  a 
wooded  wilderness,  haunted  by  savages :  if  only  they 
might  eternize  this  life  which  they  brought  hither,  and 
make  it  supreme  from  the  outset  to  the  end.  For  this 
principle  of  their  power,  although  imponderable,  was 
also  immortal;  though  invisible  as  the  fruitful  energy 
of  the  Spring,  it  was  like  that  subtle,  penetrant,  irre- 
versible, and  sure  to  show  itself  in  a  subsequent  fruitage 
of  beauty  and  of  wealth ! 

And  this  marked  them  preeminent  among  the  men  of 
their  age ;  the  real  builders  of  States ;  the  real  architects 
of  Empire!  Unconsciously,  perhaps,  they  had  struck 
here  the  vein  whose  quarried  gold  was  to  build  and 
adorn  the  great  fabrics  of  State  throughout  the  future. 
With  the  quick  intuition  which  experience  had  taught, 
they  had  seized  the  true  secret  of  imperial  development. 
And  they  were  alone  in  this.  When  Spain  sent  out  her 
colonies  to  the  South,  it  was  with  great  fleets  and  dis- 
ciplined captains;  but  with  no  other  governing  aim  or 
plan  than  to  gather  wealth  as  rapidly  as  possible;  to 
pluck  the  rubies,  the  sapphires,  and  the  gold  which 
flashed  on  that  narrow  and  splendid  zone,  and  then  to 
sweep  back  with  these  unreckoned  argosies,  and  set 
them  shining  on  the  robes  of  the  Peninsula.  When 
Raleigh  and  his  contemporaries  essayed  to  found  a  new 
empire  in  Virginia,  it  was  their  scheme  to  transport 
thither  the  society,  the  industry,  the  chivalry  of  the 
Old  World,  and  by  these  to  organize  the  new  common- 
wealths. The  plan  contemplated  no  peculiar  develop- 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  339 

ment ;  no  growth  of  the  State  from  invisible  principles ; 
no  dominance  of  supreme  and  subordinating  Ideas 
throughout  its  extent;  and  it  failed,  accordingly.  The 
distance  was  too  great,  and  the  country  too  novel,  to 
sustain  such  an  enterprise.  But  when  the  Pilgrims 
landed  at  Plymouth, — when  afterward  the  freemen  of 
the  Massachusetts  Colony  were  established  at  Boston, 
and  its  hilly  vicinity, — they  threw  themselves  back, 
behind  all  human  helps  and  strength,  on  that  invisible 
spiritual  power  which  had  wrought  in  themselves,  and 
which  they  meant  should  work  and  reign  in  those  who 
came  after.  They  designed  the  State  which  they  set 
up,  to  be  firmly  established  in  the  souls  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  then  to  be  realized  in  outward  form  wher- 
ever these  carried  it.  They  meant  the  material  to  be 
builded  and  shaped  by  the  law  of  the  spirit;  a  moral 
force,  incompressible,  though  invisible,  to  be  the  germ 
of  the  whole  commonwealth. 

And  herein,  as  I  said,  they  contrasted  the  others,  and 
showed  themselves  nobler;  of  higher  stature,  larger 
reach,  a  finer  intuition  into  man's  mystic  nature,  a  more 
grand  and  inspiring  confidence  in  God.  We  can  par- 
don much  to  them ;  their  severity  of  manners,  their  hos- 
tility to  the  fine  arts  which  they  thought  enervating, 
their  disposition  to  reenact  on  the  shores  of  the  New 
World  the  Mosaic  legislation,  in  many  of  its  forms,  as 
in  all  of  its  principles ;  we  can  understand  what  it  was 
that  sustained  them,  amid  every  privation,  and  made 
them  expectant  of  a  glorious  Future,  while  near  and 
dark  still  lowered  their  horizon ;  we  feel  the  same  sym- 
pathies grappling  us  to  them  which  knit  the  hearts  of 
Bradford  and  Winslow,  of  Winthrop  and  Saltonstall, 
and  their  educated  contemporaries,  so  closely  to  their 
work ;  we  interpret,  in  a  word,  their  whole  great  enter- 
prise, and  see  its  relations,  and  are  already  prophetic  of 


340  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

its  issue;  the  moment  we  bring  the  fact  before  us,  that 
they  sought  to  organize  a  nation  by  a  spirit,  and  to 
govern  it  by  principles,  and  not  merely  to  pile  it  by 
physical  aggregation,  and  compact  it  by  the  rules  of  a 
reciprocal  interest.  It  made  no  difference  whence  they 
sailed,  whether  from  Plymouth  or  Delft  Haven;  it 
made  no  difference  how  they  came,  whether  in  poverty 
or  in  wealth ;  since  they  were  the  heralds  of  these  pow- 
ers invisible.  These  sent  them  out  to  traverse  the  seas, 
and  these  were  to  be  to  them  arms  and  law.  And  they 
could  not  relinquish  the  work  once  commenced.  The 
great  maxim  of  Hampden,  "nulla  vestigia  retrorsum," 
became  their  maxim  also,  by  a  law  of  necessity ;  for  they 
could  not  go  back,  so  long  as  this  inspiring  purpose, 
which  had  drawn  their  barks  across  the  ocean,  which 
wore  on  its  front  illustrious  promises,  which  was  in 
itself  to  them  as  an  evangel,  commanded  them  FOR- 
WARD! 

It  was  rather  a  natural  result  of  this,  and  a  neces- 
sary corollary,  than  an  element  added  to  it,  their  Sec- 
ond principle:  that  a  State  should  be  CLOSELY  AND 
THOROUGHLY  ORGANIZED,  in  its  physical  frame;  and 
that  it  should  GROW  WITH  STEADY,  SHAPELY,  AND  GRAD- 
UAL INCREASE,  instead  of  being  loosely  accumulated 
at  first,  and  then  rapidly  expanded;  that  it  should  DE- 
VELOP ITSELF  FROM  WITHIN,  rather  than  be  swiftly, 
but  externally  augmented. — This,  which  sometimes  is 
charged  on  the  Puritans  as  a  rigorous  narrowness,  was 
really  an  inseparable  part  of  their  scheme,  and  essential, 
as  they  thought,  to  the  proper  and  wise  development 
of  the  rest.  It  harmonized  with,  was  the  complement 
to,  the  preceding  principle;  and  furnished  the  mecha- 
nism through  which  their  invisible  spirit  was  to  work. 
In  this  view,  although  it  is  not  unfamiliar,  it  claims 
and  deserves  to  be  carefully  examined. 


RICHARD   S ALTER  STORRS  341 

The  early  colonies  differed,  as  we  know,  materially, 
and  even  widely,  in  some  of  the  details  of  their  civil 
organization.  The  colonists  at  Plymouth,  few  in  num- 
ber and  unconspicuous,  a  mere  fragment  thrown  off 
from  the  great  world  of  England,  and  drifting  through 
space  in  their  own  hired  ship  to  a  shore  which  pestilence 
had  prepared  for  their  coming,  were  secure,  at  least, 
of  the  kindly  and  sheltering  neglect  of  the  monarchy; 
its  beneficent  forgetfulness.  And  so  they  established 
their  own  form  of  government  in  the  cabin  of  the  May- 
flower, and  made  themselves  "a  civil  body  politic," 
with  equality  of  rights  for  their  prime  provision,  and  a 
perfect  democracy  for  their  fundamental  law. 

The  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  on  the  other  hand, 
which  was  larger,  wealthier,  and  more  prominent  than 
this,  being  organized  at  the  start  on  a  patent  from  the 
Crown  which  contemplated  a  constant  supervision  of  its 
affairs  by  the  company  in  England,  and  having  become 
an  independent  colony  only  by  the  unforeseen  transfer 
of  that  patent,  and  the  bodily  emigration  of  the  com- 
pany itself,  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New, — this  col- 
ony had  less  of  the. purely  democratic,  had  naturally 
more  of  a  centralizing  tendency,  in  its  constitution  and 
practice,  from  the  first.  The  ultimate  authority  vested, 
indeed,  in  the  body  of  the  Freemen.  But  the  Governor 
and  the  Assistants  had  also  fixed  and  large  preroga- 
tives. The  very  number  of  the  Freemen,  indeed,  was 
limited  to  those  who  had  become  such  under  the  Patent, 
with  those  who  should  afterwards  be  admitted  by  them. 
And  it  was  only  through  resolute  and  unwearying 
effort,  extending  over  years,  involving  wide  agitation 
and  discussion,  seizing  every  occasion  for  its  fresh  ex- 
hibition, and  cresting  almost  annually  to  a  positive  ag- 
gression, that  the  body  of  the  people  pressed  up  their 
way,  through  all  the  restrictions  and  encumbrances  of 


342  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

the  charter,  to  the  recognized  right  of  making  their 
laws,  and  electing  their  officers. 

In  Connecticut,  again,  the  Constitution  at  first  was 
of  singular  liberality;  the  elective  franchise  belonging 
to  all  the  members  of  the  towns,  who  had  taken  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  mag- 
istrates and  legislators  being  chosen  by  them,  in  annual 
ballot;  while  still  later,  in  New  Haven,  this  rule  was 
modified  by  limiting  the  franchise  to  the  members  of 
the  church,  and  making  the  Bible,  by  popular  enact- 
ment, the  book  of  statutes. 

But  still,  amid  these  formal  diversities,  certain  gen- 
eral principles  are  everywhere  manifest  in  the  Puritan 
plan  for  constituting  the  State;  and  in  each  of  the  sev- 
eral districts  I  have  named  these  principles  were  recog- 
nized, and  carefully  embodied.  They  tend,  as  we  ob- 
serve them,  not  to  form  the  State  to  the  ungirt  propor- 
tions of  a  casual  democracy,  promiscuous  and  undis- 
ciplined, thrown  together  by  fortune,  united  only  by 
the  accident  of  neighborhood,  and  swaying  and  oscil- 
lating in  transitory  impulse;  but,  rather,  to  the  close 
and  well-knit  structure  of  an  organized,  compacted,  and 
permanent  Government,  with  due  subordinations  and 
supremacies  of  parts,  and  with  powers  restricted  to 
those  competent  to  wield  them.  The  State  was  a  body, 
not  a  mass,  on  their  theory;  a  vital  organism,  far-ex- 
tending, many-membered,  yet  uni-centric,  and  every- 
where pervaded  by  one  living  spirit;  not  a  mere  me- 
chanical aggregation  of  persons.  And  they  would 
scarcely  have  thought  it  possible  to  carry  on  perma- 
nently, to  successful  issues,  the  experiment  of  self-gov- 
ernment, without  such  a  careful  internal  organization. 
"GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  BEST,"  was  always  their  aim; 
with  established  deposits,  as  well  as  with  definite  limits 
and  checks,  of  authority  and  power.  And  out  of  this 
due  increase  was  to  come. 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  343 

The  Family  was  primitive,  central,  germinal,  in  the 
Puritan  Commonwealth ;  at  once  a  State  and  a  Church 
in  itself,  with  the  father  for  magistrate  and  minister  of 
God,  the  children  and  servants  for  subjects  and  dis- 
ciples. And  to  the  maintaining  and  upbuilding  of  the 
Family,  and  the  furtherance  of  it  in  fulfilment  of  these 
functions,  many  sections  of  the  early  legislation  of  New 
England,  as  well  as  the  force  of  public  opinion,  and  the 
offices  of  the  Church,  were  carefully  directed.  Both 
the  scope  and  the  limits  of  parental  authority  were  pa- 
tiently defined ;  and  while  an  intelligent  precaution  was 
taken  to  withhold  from  a  Father  who  might  prove  tyr- 
annous, an  undue  authority  over  his  dependents — such 
as  might  be  found  prejudicial  to  their  life,  or  the  free 
and  various  development  of  their  powers, — on  the  other 
hand  his  rightful  prerogatives  were  outlined,  with  as 
shrewd  a  precision,  and  he  was  distinctly  protected  by 
the  law  in  the  exercise  of  these.  Being  made  respon- 
sible for  the  training  of  his  household,  he  was  gifted 
with  powers  to  meet  the  responsibility;  and  within  his 
own  house  his  supremacy  was  fixed. 

Thus  the  earliest  aim  of  the  Puritan  legislation  was 
to  make  the  Family  the  real  seminary  and  seed-field, 
out  of  which  should  arise  the  enlarging  Common- 
wealth; in  which  the  relative  subordinations  and  lead- 
erships, the  obligations  and  the  offices  of  the  State, 
should  be  imaged,  and  from  which  should  proceed  the 
practised  minds,  and  the  disciplined  wills,  to  direct  and 
administer  public  affairs.  It  made  each  household  an 
independent  community;  an  actual,  central,  self-deter- 
mined Commonwealth;  where  the  proper  authority  of 
law  should  be  recognized;  where  men  should  learn  to 
command  in  after  life,  by  having  been  taught  to  obey 
in  their  youth ;  and  where,  in  a  real  though  a  miniature 
development,  all  the  functions  of  the  State  should  be 
prophesied  and  fulfilled.  The  family-affection  here  in- 


344  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

culcated,  was  to  be  the  germ  of  patriotism  afterward; 
the  fealty  to  a  Father,  to  expand  and  ascend  into  loy- 
alty to  the  State;  and  the  habit  of  command,  in  the 
Parent  himself,  to  prepare  him  to  fill,  and  worthily  to 
discharge,  high  public  trusts.  And  no  other  part  of  the 
Puritan  plan  was  really  so  essential  to  the  integrity 
and  well-working  of  their  whole  scheme  of  government 
as  this,  their  assiduous  protection  of  the  Family. 

The  moment  we  pass  the  boundaries  of  this  insti- 
tute, complete  in  itself,  and  in  place  primordial,  we 
come  to  that  principle  of  alliance  and  federation  which 
was  equally  familiar  to  the  Puritan  communities,  and 
which  gave  them  coherence,  with  capacity  for  expan- 
sion. All  the  households  residing  within  certain  fixed 
limits  composed  the  Town;  and  the  heads  of  these 
households,  with  those  who  had  been  trained  to  a  suit- 
able age  under  their  own  supervision  and  government, 
or  who  had  resided  long  enough  among  them  to  become 
imbued  with  their  principles  and  spirit,  were  the  recog- 
nized electors  and  governors  of  that  Town;  by  whose 
free  choice  its  operations  were  directed,  and  from  whose 
intelligent  and  uncontrolled  suffrages  each  election  pro- 
ceeded. 

If  the  Family  approximated  therefore  a  limited  mon- 
archy in  its  constitution — the  authority  of  the  parent, 
while  presumed  to  be  limited  by  wisdom  and  by  love, 
and  while  positively  limited  by  encompassing  statutes, 
being  still  asserted  as  judicial  and  supreme — the  Town, 
on  the  other  hand,  approximated  in  its  constitution  and 
government  a  perfect  democracy;  the  right  of  voting 
being  limited,  indeed,  to  those  who  were  presumed  to 
be  qualified  for  it — in  some  instances,  as  I  said,  to 
those  who  were  church-members,  in  others  to  those 
elected  Freemen — but  being  entire  and  permanent 
among  these,  inalienable  save  by  removal  or  crime,  and 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS          345 

the  vote  of  each  man  being  equal  in  the  count  to  that 
of  his  older  or  wealthier  neighbor.  Yet  the  same  ideas 
of  the  rightful  authority  and  preeminence  of  the  gover- 
nors, which  were  implanted  and  carefully  nourished 
in  the  Family  institute,  were  extended  in  spirit  to  the 
officers  of  the  Town;  and  when  these  had  once  been 
fairly  elected,  they  claimed  and  received  a  kind  of  re- 
spect which,  now,  in  these  days  of  official  delinquency 
and  of  popular  suspiciousness,  would  seem  grotesque. 
They  exercised,  indeed,  a  positive  power,  as  guardians 
of  the  peace  and  the  weal  of  the  public,  which  we 
should  scarcely  intrust  to  any. 

The  many  Towns,  confederated  again,  and  all  repre- 
sented in  the  general  councils,  made  up  the  State. 
They  legitimated  its  government,  appointed  its  officers, 
and  framed  its  legislation;  and  they  were  competent 
to  revise  and  change  the  very  organic  law  that  shaped 
it.  The  State  did  not  ordain  the  Towns,  and  intrust 
to  them  their  powers  and  prerogatives ;  but  the  Towns, 
with  these  inherent  and  primitive,  sprang  up  themselves 
around  each  church,  and  made  the  general  Government 
for  their  minister.  In  Plymouth,  therefore,  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  the  whole  body  of  male  inhabitants,  of 
lawful  age,  composed  the  Legislature.  They  decided 
executive  and  judicial  questions,  also,  as  convened  for 
that  purpose.  They  were,  in  fact  and  in  law,  the  Gov- 
ernment; with  nothing  above  them,  nearer  than  the 
stars!  And  when  afterward,  through  their  increase, 
this  came  to  be  impossible,  representatives  of  the  Towns 
succeeded  to  their  power. 

Again  the  principle  of  alliance  and  federation, — 
which  naturally  extended  in  its  further  development 
from  one  Colony  to  another,  which  made  in  1643  tne 
"United  Colonies  of  New  England"  to  be  in  some  re- 
spects as  one,  and  which  thus  became  the  germ  of  our 


346  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

whole  existing  confederate  system, — again  this  prin- 
ciple was  vigorously  applied,  linking  Towns  with  one 
another  in  a  great  body  composite,  protecting  each, 
and  renewing  its  force,  by  allying  it  with  the  rest,  and 
making  of  the  separated  arrows  one  sheaf.  And  again 
the  principle  of  the  just  subordination  and  subjection 
of  the  governed,  and  of  the  rightful  authority  of  the 
governors,  which  had  been  recognized  and  incorporate 
in  the  Family,  and  thence  in  the  Town,  was  established 
and  maintained  in  application  to  the  State;  and  that 
federation  of  co-operating  communities,  while  annually 
revising  and  reconstituting  its  government,  and  insist- 
ing, against  all  sermons  and  treatises,  on  rotation  in 
office,  attributed  to  its  officers,  and  readily  secured  for 
them,  a  degree  of  intelligent  and  honorable  respect 
which  it  now  would  seem  absurd  to  attempt;  which 
looks,  indeed,  almost  inexplicable  as  we  trace  it  in 
history. 

While  essentially  Republican,  then,  as  well  as  free 
and  autonomic,  the  plan  of  the  earlier  Puritan  common- 
wealths was  not,  in  the  popular  sense,  Democratic.  It 
had  its  root  always,  and  substantially  its  prototype,  in 
the  Family  constitution.  It  contemplated,  throughout, 
an  internal  organization  thorough  and  close-wrought, 
involving  a  fixed  subordination  of  parts.  It  did  not 
design  to  make  all  men  voters,  irrespective  of  character, 
but  only  those  who  were  qualified  to  vote;  and  though 
it  fixedly  vested  in  these  the  ultimate  supremacy,  it 
still  encouraged  in  no  degree  their  hasty,  unorganized, 
or  irregular  action.  Its  governors  were  real  Gover- 
nors, and  not  merely  representatives  of  a  popular  ca- 
price. Its  legislators  and  magistrates,  though  deriving 
their  authority  in  each  case  from  the  people,  were  yet 
accepted  as  in  a  high  sense  the  Fathers  of  the  State, 
and  were  honored  accordingly.  And  never,  I  think,  in 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  347 

any  Monarchy,  or  any  Republic,  has  the  internal  struc- 
ture of  the  government  been  closer,  more  carefully 
compacted,  more  firmly  and  finely  knit  together,  than 
in  those  new  States,  where  the  people  ruled  all,  where 
the  judges  themselves  were  elected  every  year,  and 
where  it  was  held  to  be  a  species  of  treason  to  appeal 
from  the  Commonwealth  unto  the  Crown. 

And  all  this  was  for  a  definite  purpose.  There  was 
nothing  accidental  or  fortuitous  in  it.  It  had  its  foun- 
dation, not  in  tradition.  They  were  severed  from  that ! 
Those  ears  that  had  heard  the  persecuting  shears  snap- 
ping around  them,  were  closed  thenceforth  to  the  voices 
of  tradition !  The  sea,  too,  had  set  its  billowy  thunder 
between  them  and  the  Past.  Their  frame  of  the  gov- 
ernment had  its  spring  in  their  own  intelligent  judg- 
ment. The  Past  did  not  impose  it;  but  the  Future 
inspired  it.  It  was  carefully  planned,  and  firmly  or- 
dained, to  secure  the  prevalence  throughout  their  com- 
munities of  that  high  and  positive  spiritual  life  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  as  the  power  to  which  the  Puritans 
looked  for  all  their  success  and  all  their  advance.  To 
work  this  into  the  minds  of  the  members,  first  of  the 
Family,  then  of  the  Town,  and  finally  of  the  State,  to 
make  it  everywhere  effective  and  paramount,  and  se- 
cure its  propagation  through  subsequent  years, — to  this 
their  whole  apparatus  of  government  was  anxiously 
adjusted. 

They  did  not  desire  to  expand  the  Commonwealth 
over  very  large  territory.  They  preferred  to  have  it 
confined  to  small  boundaries,  and  to  have  each  separate 
shoot  that  went  out  from  it  strike  down  its  own  root, 
and  grow  up  for  itself.  They  did  not  encourage,  but 
distinctly  discouraged,  a  promiscuous  immigration, 
even  of  Englishmen,  to  the  shores  they  were  peopling. 
They  were  even  somewhat  fearful  of  the  influences  of 


348  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

commerce.  And  while  their  hardy  sailors  went  out, 
from  a  very  early  period,  to  engage  in  the  fisheries,  and 
to  prosecute  a  traffic  both  coastwise  and  transmarine, 
and  while  that  manly  art  of  ship-building,  which  now 
makes  all  the  seaboard  ring,  was  early  introduced,  they 
preferred,  as  far  as  possible,  to  retain  both  their  men 
and  their  products  at  home,  and  to  build  up  whatever 
of  mechanisms  they  needed  for  the  comfort  of  life, 
from  their  own  resources,  rather  than  to  import  these 
from  abroad.  Linen,  woollen,  iron  implements,  gun- 
powder, they  tried  to  make  them  all  at  home,  and  to 
have  no  occasion  to  go  over  sea  for  them.  And  they 
would  not  allow  to  the  Parliament  of  their  friends  any 
more  authority  over  their  affairs,  than  they  had  allowed 
to  Charles  First,  and  to  Laud. 

It  was  all  because  they  sought  in  these  methods  to 
make  the  peculiar  spiritual  force  in  which  they  trusted, 
of  individual  conscientiousness,  religious  conviction, 
and  a  voluntary  deference  to  public  justice,  paramount 
and  prevalent  throughout  the  State ;  and  to  realize  that 
slow  but  shapely  growth  which  should  follow  this,  and 
spring  from  its  life.  Any  rapid  enlargement  of  re- 
sources, or  of  territory,  which  should  be  attended  by 
the  hazard  of  this,  they  dreaded  as  a  curse,  and  persis- 
tently warded  off.  They  wanted  their  small,  but  well 
organized  States  to  be  strong  in  the  inward  agreement 
of  their  members,  their  common  intelligence,  their  mu- 
tual fealty,  their  ethical  fidelity,  and  their  religious  con- 
secration; and  then  to  grow  from  poverty  to  wealth, 
from  fewness  of  numbers  to  a  large  population,  from 
their  early  deficiency  in  the  means  of  enjoyment,  and 
of  social  cultivation,  to  affluence  in  all  these — not  by 
gathering  them  from  abroad,  so  much  as  by  creating 
them  on  their  own  soil,  from  their  own  energetic  and 
fruitful  life.  They  defined  their  Towns,  and  made 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  349 

them  compact,  forbidding  the  erection  of  any  dwelling- 
house  in  them  at  a  distance  of  more  than  half  a  mile 
from  the  meeting-house.  They  granted  their  lands  to 
companies,  generally,  not  to  persons,  that  a  number  of 
families  might  settle  together,  and  that  public  opinion 
might  at  once  be  formed  and  influential  among  them. 

A  population  interiorly  compacted  and  harmonized 
by  the  moral  agreement  and  concord  of  its  members, 
and  the  prevalence  among  all  of  those  governing  prin- 
ciples which  the  Bible  had  revealed,  and  the  Fathers 
had  accepted ;  a  population  spreading  out  by  degrees  to 
new  districts,  but  subduing,  cultivating,  transforming, 
as  it  went,  carrying  schools  with  it,  churches,  colleges, 
and  all  the  structures  of  social  life ;  breaking  off  at  the 
frontier,  the  moment  it  touched  that,  to  a  separate  life, 
and  starting  up  there  into  new  communities,  with  simi- 
lar institutions,  and  the  same  public  sentiment ; — a  pop- 
ulation which,  to  its  furthest  limits,  up  among  the 
mountains  where  the  bridle-path  followed  the  trail  of 
the  Indian,  down  upon  the  sea-coast  where  the  sail  was 
just  glancing  above  the  canoe,  should  still  in  all  parts 
be  pervaded  and  governed,  and  vitally  integrated,  by 
the  spirit  first  brought  here  in  the  casket  of  the  May- 
flower, and  aftenvard  re-enforced  from  the  Jewel,  the 
Ambrose,  and  the  Lady  Arbella; — this  was  what  the 
Puritans  aimed  at !  They  made  no  plan,  and  they  had 
no  wish,  for  a  mere  aggregation  of  numbers  and  of 
treasures,  aside  from  this;  and  they  built  all  their  hopes 
of  realizing  the  Ideal  which  they  had  brought  hither, 
on  their  probable  success  in  accomplishing  this. 

From  such  a  real  and  vital  formation,  closely  organ- 
ized around  the  Family  centre,  a  slow,  but  certain  and 
normal  growth  was  sure  to  come ;  and  that  they  sought. 
It  was  GROWTH  they  were  after,  and  not  mere  increase ; 
growth  from  a  root,  in  obedience  to  an  inward  organ- 


350  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

izing  law,  and  not  mere  outward  adventitious  addi- 
tions. The  State  was  a  body,  not  a  building,  in  their 
plan;  and  they  wished  it  compacted  by  a  permeating 
life,  not  simply  set  together,  mortised  and  clamped. 

And  however  we  may  dissent  from  their  methods, 
and  think  we  discern  an  unwisdom  in  them  which  we 
have  outgrown,  we  cannot  but  perceive  the  real  unity 
of  their  plan,  and  render  the  tribute  of  our  respect  to 
what  was  at  once  so  novel  and  complete.  They  made 
an  aristocracy;  but  it  was  one  of  character,  never  of 
property,  in  which  the  servant,  if  a  freeman  of  the 
Church,  might  be  a  legislator,  while  the  wealthiest 
master,  if  irreligious,  was  a  subject.  They  held  their 
town-meetings  in  the  church,  of  set  purpose;  because 
the  affairs  to  be  there  transacted  should  properly  be 
governed  by  the  spirit  of  religion.  They  opened  their 
legislative  sessions  with  a  sermon,  on  the  same  vital 
plan;  and  enjoined  it  on  the  magistrates  to  recognize 
and  enforce  the  discipline  of  the  Church.  They  strove 
systematically  to  incorporate  into  laws  that  vision  of 
Milton — the  State  as  one  great  Christian  Man,  with 
sinews  strung,  and  mighty  members,  but  with  religious 
convictions  for  the  breath  of  its  frame!  And  what 
they  did  is  approved  by  the  issue.  They  said  them- 
selves, when  Cromwell  invited  them  to  emigrate  to 
Ireland,  "Our  government  is  the  wisest  and  the  hap- 
piest this  day,  on  the  face  of  the  earth!"  And  the 
country  has  felt  the  pressure  of  their  influence,  and 
must  feel  it  more,  even  unto  the  end,  in  great  part  be- 
cause they  organized  so  carefully,  while  believing  so 
firmly;  and  though  trusting  in  the  spirit  of  personal 
faith  as  their  ultimate  life,  they  gave  this  a  mechanism, 
through  which  to  work,  most  close  and  compact.  Here 
they  showed  themselves  men  of  administrative  skill, 
and  not  visionary  theorists.  And  if  human  nature  was 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS    35 1 

too  stiff  for  them  at  last,  and  the  Millennium  too  dis- 
tant to  allow  their  success,  they  yet  with  rarest  force 
and  zeal  made  their  effort  to  open  to  the  province  which 
they  peopled  the  nobler  Era ! 

But  still  a  Third  principle  in  the  Puritan  scheme  con- 
cerning National  Growth,  was  this :  that  while  proceed- 
ing from  a  central  and  positive  spiritual  life,  and  work- 
ing out  through  a  compact  organization,  into  a  gradual 
shapely  increase,  it  SHOULD  BE  ATTENDED  WITH  NOBLE 
FRUITS;  it  should  be,  indeed,  in  order  to  such  FRUITS, 
of  high  and  pure  character,  and  beneficent  action ;  and, 
unless  the  State  gained  these  as  its  result,  it  had  failed 
to  vindicate  its  right  to  be,  it  had  failed  to  fulfil  its 
office  in  the  world. 

No  man  can  read  the  earlier  records  of  the  history  of 
New  England,  without  seeing  this  aim  shining  brightly 
above  them,  or  without  being  impressed  by  its  purity 
and  its  dignity. 

Even  in  Holland  the  Pilgrims  had  been  moved  by 
"an  inward  zeal  of  advancing  the  Gospel  in  the  remote 
parts  of  the  New  World;"  "yea,"  they  added,  with  a 
lofty  humility  which  challenges  our  reverence,  "though 
we  should  be  but  as  stepping-stones  unto  others,  for 
performing  so  great  a  work."  And  in  the  compact 
signed  in  the  Mayflower,  it  was  declared  that  they 
had  undertaken  the  voyage  "for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,"  as  well  as  "for 
the  honor  of  king  and  country." — The  same  was  true 
of  the  immigrants  to  the  Bay.  "For  that  the  propagat- 
ing of  the  Gospel,"  said  the  company  in  their  first  letter 
of  instructions  to  Endicott  and  his  council,  "for  that 
the  propagating  of  the  Gospel  is  the  thing  we  do  pro- 
fess above  all  to  be  our  aim  in  settling  this  plantation, 
we  have  been  careful  to  make  plentiful  provision  of 
godly  ministers,  by  whose  faithful  preaching,  godly 


352  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

conversation,  and  exemplary  life,  we  trust  not  only 
those  of  our  own  nation  will  be  built  up  in  the  know- 
ledge of  God,  but  also  the  Indians  may,  in  God's  ap- 
pointed time,  be  reduced  to  the  obedience  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ."  And  in  the  Charter  itself  it  is  averred,  that 
"to  win  and  invite  the  natives  of  the  country  to  the 
knowledge  and  obedience  of  the  only  true  God  and 
Saviour  of  mankind,  and  the  Christian  faith,  in  our 
royal  intention,  and  the  adventurers'  free  profession,  is 
the  principal  end  of  this  plantation." 

In  the  oath  of  the  Governor  it  was  therefore  sol- 
emnly incorporated :  "and,  likewise,  you  shall  do  your 
best  endeavors  to  draw  on  the  natives  of  this  country, 
called  New  England,  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God ; 
and  to  conserve  the  planters,  and  others  coming  hither, 
in  the  same  knowledge  and  fear  of  God."  On  the  ear- 
liest seal  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  over  the  figure 
of  the  Indian  that  still  stands  there,  instead  of  the  pres- 
ent Latin  legend  quoted  fitly  from  Algernon  Sidney, 
was  blazoned  that  stirring  Macedonian  cry  which  Paul 
had  heard  amid  the  ruins  of  Troy,  on  the  night  that 
followed  that  memorable  day  when  his  eye  first  caught 
the  summits  of  Europe,  "Come  over  and  help  us !"  In 
1646,  immediately  on  the  close  of  the  Pequot  war,  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  passed  their  formal  act 
to  encourage  the  carrying  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians, 
and  recommended  it  earnestly  to  the  elders  of  the 
churches  to  consider  how  this  might  best  be  done.  And 
in  1663,  within  little  more  than  twenty  years  after  the 
first  printing  press,  given  from  Holland,  had  been  set 
up  at  Cambridge,  the  Bible  was  printed  there,  in  the  Al- 
gonquin tongue,  the  current  dialect  of  the  New  Eng- 
land tribes. 

To  establish  the  Gospel,  and  spread  it  broadcast,  in 
the  new  and  untracked  wildernesses  before  them,  to  con- 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  353 

vert  the  savages  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  to 
open  above  their  darkened  souls  the  gates  of  grace,  was 
thus  the  cardinal  aim  of  the  Colony.  They  sought  in 
this  way,  so  difficult  and  obscure,  yet  morally  so  grand, 
to  add  to  man's  good,  and  to  advance  God's  honor. 

Yet,  not  only  this,  but  also  to  establish  great  Chris- 
tian Commonwealths,  full,  to  the  end,  of  a  purifying 
influence,  was  comprised  in  their  plan.  Winthrop  had 
intimated  this,  in  those  "General  Conclusions"  attrib- 
uted to  him,  wherein  he  said  that  "to  raise  a  bulwark 
against  the  kingdom  of  anti-Christ,"  and  "to  accom- 
plish an  enterprise  whose  main  end  should  be  not  car- 
nal, but  religious,"  was  the  purpose  of  the  colonists. 
Higginson,  when  he  was  leaving  England,  after  that 
fervent  and  majestic  Farewell  which  can  never  be  for- 
gotten, "to  the  Church  of  God  in  England,  and  all 
dear  Christian  friends  there,"  said,  as  the  shores  faded 
out  from  his  sight,  "we  go  to  practise  the  positive  part 
of  Church  reformation,  and  to  propagate  the  Gospel  in 
America."  When  afterward  he  preached  his  last  mem- 
orable sermon,  on  the  arrival  of  many  gentlemen 
from  England,  as  he  was  himself  just  preparing  to  de- 
part from  those  then  recent  settlements  to  the  City 
above,  his  text  was,  "What  went  ye  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  see?"  And  his  answer  was,  in  substance,  to 
establish  a  pure  and  religious  Commonwealth,  within 
which  the  Gospel  should  reign  supreme,  and  from 
which  it  should  be  widely  dispersed.  "In  the  very  hour 
of  death,"  says  Bancroft,  "the  future  prosperity  of 
New  England,  and  the  coming  glories  of  its  many 
churches,  floated  in  cheering  visions  before  his  eyes." 

For  this  end  Harvard  College  was  planned  and 
founded,  within  the  first  struggling  decennary  of  the 
colony,  and  out  of  the  midst  of  its  uttermost  poverty ; 
the  very  ferry  being  taxed  to  enable  its  teachers  to 


354  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

guide  young  minds  on  their  search  through  the  Past, 
or  their  perilous  flights  beyond  Sirius  and  Aldebaran. 
For  this  it  was  enjoined  that  each  town  of  fifty  fami- 
lies must  support  a  free  school;  and  each  town  of  a 
hundred  families  a  grammar  school,  in  which  youth 
might  be  trained  for  the  University.  And  for  this, 
everywhere,  the  Church  was  made  prominent  as  the 
real  centre,  the  organizing  power,  in  each  community; 
and  the  ministers  were  consulted  in  all  plans  of  gov- 
ernment. 

John  Cotton  had  said,  before  leaving  England,  in 
that  noble  Church  of  St.  Botolph  in  Boston  where  he 
ministered,  whose  size  and  beauty  rival  those  of  cathe- 
drals, and  whose  tower  is  seen  forty  miles  out  at  sea, 
that  his  aim  in  his  ministry  there  had  been  "to  pro- 
mote a  threefold  concord  among  his  people;  between 
God  and  their  consciences,  between  true-hearted  loy- 
alty and  Christian  liberty,  between  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  love  of  their  neighbors."  This  was  the  aim  which 
he  brought  with  him,  in  that  long  voyage  where  "three 
sermons  a  day  beguiled  the  weariness  of  the  passen- 
gers," when  he  came  to  the  newer  and  less  promising 
Boston,  which,  as  Mather  says,  "upon  some  accounts 
of  growth  soon  came  to  exceed  Old  Boston  in  every 
thing  that  makes  a  town  considerable."  This  was  the 
aim  of  those  with  whom,  and  upon  whom,  he  acted; 
and  this  at  once  defines  and  exalts  their  purpose  in 
coming.  "COLONIES  ARE  THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  GREAT 
COMMONWEALTHS,"  said  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  their  answer  to  Parliament,  in  1646.  And 
to  make  those  coming  Commonwealths  pure  and  Chris- 
tian, prosperous  and  powerful  for  a  noble  beneficence, 
was  the  constant  hope  of  those  who  were  planting  them. 
They  felt  themselves,  as  Winthrop  the  younger  said 
in  England,  "indented  to  God's  glory,  in  so  special  a 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  355 

service."  And  when  the  confederacy  of  the  Five  coop- 
erating Colonies  was  formed,  its  object  still  was,  not 
the  mere  political  protection  of  its  members,  but  the 
"sustentation  of  the  truth,  and  the  liberties  of  the 
Gospel." 

The  Pilgrims  would  have  held  that  State  most  im- 
perfect which  contented  itself,  and  complacently  rested, 
in  its  own  advancement  and  special  prosperities,  with- 
out seeking  to  benefit  others  around  it.  They  esteemed 
that  progress  to  be  radically  wanting  in  greatness  and 
value,  which  was  a  mere  progress  in  power  and  wealth, 
and  in  physical  success;  which  gained  no  results  of 
great  character  and  culture,  and  blossomed  out  to  no 
wealthy  fruits  of  enlarged  Christian  knowledge.  The 
moral,  to  them,  was  superior  to  the  physical;  the  at- 
tainments of  Christian  wisdom  and  piety,  above  accu- 
mulations of  worldly  resources ;  the  alliance  of  the  soul 
with  God,  through  faith,  above  the  conquest  and  mas- 
tery of  Nature.  And  to  these  they  held  the  State  to  be 
tributary,  as  they  held  all  things  else  that  existed  on 
the  earth;  the  very  earth  itself,  and  its  laws. 

They  themselves  were  ordained  to  this,  by  a  personal 
baptism  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Their  communities 
were  ordained  to  it,  by  that  Providence  of  God  which 
had  marshalled  them  hither,  and  had  opened  before 
them  the  paths  of  the  wilderness.  They  anticipated, 
therefore,  and  carefully  arranged  for  this  from  the 
outset:  that  the  noble  character,  which  at  first  was 
brought  hither  by  Endicott,  Winthrop,  Sahonstall, 
Johnson,  or  earlier  still,  by  Carver,  Bradford,  Brew- 
ster,  and  their  fellows,  should  be  preserved,  exalted,  re- 
enforced,  and  more  widely  distributed,  in  generations 
to  come;  that  the  lights  of  learning,  rekindled  here, 
should  burn  with  only  a  brighter  flame  than  they  ever 
had  shown  on  the  shores  of  the  Old  World;  that  the 


356  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

institutes  of  religion  should  have  a  solid  and  enduring 
foundation  in  the  States  they  erected;  and  that  great, 
and  wise,  and  wide-reaching  efforts,  for  man's  good 
and  God's  glory,  should  be  the  ultimate,  the  ever-re- 
peated product  and  fruit,  of  all  their  large  and  arduous 
enterprise!  Not  a  mere  police  establishment  was  the 
State  on  their  theory;  accomplishing  its  office  in  pro- 
tecting its  subjects,  and  punishing  criminals.  It  was 
to  them  a  place  and  a  power  of  the  noblest  education; 
a  teeming  nursery  of  all  good  influence  and  heavenly 
growths,  from  which  Letters,  Charities,  and  Salvation 
should  proceed,  and  in  which  they  should  perpetually 
be  nourished.  Philanthropic  endeavors,  and  mission- 
ary enterprises,  were  to  be  its  results ;  the  proofs  of  its 
prosperity;  the  real  and  imperishable  rewards  of  its 
founders.  It  existed,  in  order  that  characters  might  be 
formed,  commanding,  large,  and  full  of  light,  whose 
record  should  make  all  history  brighter,  whose  influ- 
ence should  link  the  earth  with  the  skies.  And  they 
expected  Millennium  itself,  with  its  long  eras  of  peace 
and  of  purity,  of  tranquil  delight  and  illuminated  wis- 
dom, to  spring,  as  the  last  and  crowning  fruitage,  from 
the  States  they  were  founding,  and  from  others  like 
them. 

It  was  this  which  inspired  them  to  come  hither  as 
they  did,  and  not  the  mere  pressure  of  strictness  at 
home  which  drove  most  of  them  hither.  They  came  as 
drawn,  not  driven  out;  attracted  by  a  purpose,  not  ex- 
iled by  an  edict ;  to  make  the  world  better,  through  the 
States  they  were  to  found,  and  not  merely  to  es- 
cape the  supervision  of  constables.  They  sacrificed 
much,  and  they  knew  all  they  sacrificed.  But  they 
poured  it  all  as  precious  ointment  on  the  feet  of  this 
enterprise,  which  to  them  was  Divine!  They  left  the 
fairest  parts  of  England — old  homes  to  which  their 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  357 

hearts  were  rooted;  old  ways  in  which  their  infancy 
had  tottered ;  the  streams  on  whose  banks  they  had  won 
their  brides;  the  ancient  churches,  whose  walls  were 
still  brightened  with  the  scutcheons  of  their  ancestors, 
and  at  whose  altars  they  had  worshipped  themselves, 
or  had  joyfully  ministered;  they  left  the  shadows  of 
Universities  that  had  trained  them,  and  all  the  storied 
and  venerated  scenes  which  grappled  their  hearts  with 
hooks  of  steel ;  as  Hubbard  said  of  the  Lady  Arbella, 
the  daughter  of  the  noble  house  of  Lincoln,  they  "came 
from  a  paradise  of  plenty  and  peace,  to  a  wilderness  of 
wants,"  where  often,  as  with  her,  their  very  life  was 
shattered  in  the  transfer — because  they  sought  and  ex- 
pected to  rear  here  not  only  States  pervaded  by  one 
life,  compacted  thoroughly,  and  steadily  increasing,  but 
States  whose  FRUIT  should  reward  all  their  effort; 
whose  results,  of  enlightenment,  and  of  human  salva- 
tion, running  on  through  the  centuries,  should  culmi- 
nate at  last  in  the  glories  of  that  Day  when  the  Hea- 
vens and  the  Earth  shall  be  one  in  their  life!  And 
except  for  this  we  had  no  New  England,  and  no  re- 
curring "Forefathers'  Day"  to  rain  on  us  its  great 
inspirations ! 

And  in  this,  assuredly,  the  Puritans  were  wise,  large- 
minded,  large-hearted,  philosophic,  philanthropic,  we 
might  say  poetic !  And  History,  however  she  dissents 
from  their  methods,  must  reverence  their  aim!  A 
State  is  for  Fruit,  and  not  for  its  own  mere  mainte- 
nance and  growth.  Whensoever,  and  so  far  as,  any 
State  upon  earth  has  contributed  to  this,  has  advanced 
and  upbuilded  the  moral  life  of  mankind,  its  influence 
and  renown  become  thereby  imperishable.  We  value 
the  Roman  Empire  to-day,  not  for  the  palaces  that 
shone  on  the  Palatine,  or  the  arches  that  spanned  the 
great  current  of  the  triumph  as  it  swept  along  the  Sa- 


358  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

cred  Way;  not  because  its  helmets  flashed  over  the 
earth,  and  fronted  on  one  hand  the  auroral  dawn  of 
Indian  plains,  while  gleaming  on  the  other  through  the 
night  of  the  Hebrides;  but  because  it  has  given  us 
something  of  poetry,  much  of  eloquence,  because  it 
created  the  Civil  Law  for  us,  that  growth  of  centuries, 
which  still  has  a  recognized  power  in  our  courts,  and 
because  a  glorious  patriotism  was  born  in  it  which  yet 
lifts  its  standards  over  the  centuries.  We  value  the 
brilliant  States  of  Greece,  because  of  their  splendid 
contributions  to  letters,  to  the  art  of  the  world,  and  its 
ideas  of  government;  because  Liberty,  thence  flying 
like  a  shining  Apollo,  has  borne  its  light  to  Western 
climes;  and  because  the  great  fathers  and  exemplars 
of  Greece  still  instruct  and  inspire  us  by  their  primitive 
heroism.  We  value  the  English  growth  and  history, 
because  our  world  has  inherited  from  it  not  Shakspeare 
only,  Bacon,  Milton,  but  the  Common  Law,  Constitu- 
tional Liberty,  Protestant  Christianity,  and  the  English 
Bible;  because  there  streams  on  us  an  influence  from 
cloister  and  college,  from  pulpit  and  parliament,  from 
the  scaffolds  that  have  risen  there,  and  the  parish 
churches  that  trained  men  for  them ;  from  all  the  great 
centuries  that  have  marched  over  England,  with  their 
industries  and  struggles,  their  glorious  resistances, 
their  sacraments  of  martyrdom,  and  their  triumphs  of 
Right!  Till  the  globe  is  dissolved,  the  energy  thence 
diffused  shall  never  die  out  of  the  history  of  mankind ; 
and,  therefore,  until  the  globe  is  dissolved,  the  name 
of  England  shall  be  one  of  its  watchwords ! 

And  we  must  agree  that  the  Puritans  were  right, 
wise,  noble,  in  seeking  to  make  the  States  they  formed 
only  means  of  results,  which,  though  invisible,  should 
be  immortal ;  which,  while  as  spiritual  as  light  and  air, 
should  be  like  these  renewing  powers  in  the  history  of 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS          359 

the  World !  It  would  not  have  been  according  to  their 
nature,  or  according  to  God's  great  training  of  them, 
that  they  should  have  aimed  at  less  than  this;  and  the 
fact  that  they  sought  this,  commands  our  respect,  and 
justifies  our  reverence !  It  shows  them,  again,  not  me- 
chanics, but  architects,  in  the  building  of  States;  not 
mere  fanatical  adventurers  and  religionists,  frightened 
fugitives  flying  from  despotism,  or  ascetic  devotees  of 
a  rigorous  doctrine,  but  men  of  purpose,  faith,  and 
forecast;  the  height  of  whose  minds  is  proved  and 
measured  by  the  height  of  their  aims;  the  width,  and 
length,  and  unity  of  whose  plans  demonstrate  their 
greatness. 

Not  artisans  only,  but  artists  they  were ;  of  a  certain 
colossal  cyclopean  order,  yet  with  the  rarest  dreams  of 
beauty !  They  thought  little  of  the  colors  that  blushed 
upon  the  canvas ;  but  the  mountains  and  the  sea  were  the 
frame  of  that  picture  which  they  designed  to  brighten 
with  towns,  and  to  fill  with  all  forms  of  beneficent 
industry.  They  sang  in  their  churches  without  aid 
of  instruments,  in  stanzas  not  smooth,  and  tones  not 
tuneful;  but  they  meant  so  to  mingle  the  elements 
which  they  brought  here,  and  those  they  invited,  that 
from  them  should  flow,  in  harmonious  procession,  the 
cadence  of  a  History  chiming  on  through  the  centuries, 
full  of  faith  and  of  praise !  They  had  little  regard  for 
the  products  of  the  chisel,  that  makes  the  marble  start 
to  action,  and  almost  throb  with  the  quivers  of  life. 
But  they  meant  to  carve  those  rugged  heights  which 
gloomed  around  them,  to  the  pedestal  of  a  Form  such 
as  John  had  seen,  in  his  older  Patmos,  when  the  Hea- 
vens unfurled  their  splendors  to  him !  And  they  who 
deride  them,  or  they  who  neglect  them,  may  be  chal- 
lenged to  show  a  more  majestic  ideal !  God's  own  in- 
spirations are  revealed  in  its  grandeur! 


360  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

My  Friends,  it  is  an  honor  to  have  sprung  from 
these  men!  It  is  a  great  office  to  do  what  we  may  to 
accomplish  their  design!  We  assemble  amid  scenes, 
as  I  said  at  the  outset,  which  widely  contrast  those  they 
confronted  in  establishing  their  States.  Those  narrow 
and  crooked  paths  through  Boston,  which  certainly 
nothing  but  a  marvellous  enthusiasm  could  have 
prompted  Johnson  to  call  "comely  streets,"  as  matched 
against  this  resounding  Broadway,  with  the  splendors 
that  deck  it,  the  hurry  and  the  brightness  of  traffic  and 
of  fashion  that  constantly  throng  it;  that  shadow  of 
the  tree  under  which  they  assembled,  to  hear  the  words 
of  Preacher  or  Governor,  as  set  against  this  elaborate 
edifice,1  with  its  gateways  and  galleries,  its  granite 
walls  and  springing  windows,  its  fair  proportions 
crusted  with  ornament;  these  tell  the  story,  without 
other  help,  of  our  physical  advance !  These  show  what 
equipments  of  wealth  we  have  gathered,  in  two  cen- 
turies and  a  quarter;  and  these  may  properly  so  far 
impress  us  as  to  make  us  grateful  to  God  for  His  kind- 
ness, and  hopeful  for  that  Future  of  which  such  are 
the  means ! 

But  let  not  our  wealth,  as  contrasting  their  poverty, 
ever  hide  from  us  the  real  eminence  in  character  of  our 
Fathers,  or  diminish  our  sense  of  the  value  .and  the 
grandeur  of  the  plans  they  brought  hither.  Let  us  rec- 
ognize the  fact,  for  it  certainly  is  one,  that  the  nature 
of  those  plans  is  not  comprehended,  or  if  comprehended 
is  departed  from  constantly,  in  our  social  life  and  our 
civil  history ;  and  that,  while  the  principles  which  were 
sacred  to  them  have  been  the  secret  of  our  prosperity, 
the  invisible  workmen  that  have  builded  it  all,  those 
others,  which  now  obtain  among  us,  if  left  unchecked, 
will  work  opposite  effects  for  those  who  come  after. 

1  The  oration  was  delivered  in  the  Church  of  the  Messiah. 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  361 

I  certainly  am  no  devotee  of  the  Past.  I  am  not 
afraid  of  the  Present  and  its  tendencies,  nor  timid  for 
the  Future.  I  believe  that  the  soil  which  was  conse- 
crated to  God  by  that  first  stormy  Sabbath,  kept  by  the 
Pilgrims  on  a  desolate  island  while  not  far  off  the  May- 
flower hovered,  shall  remain  an  asylum  for  His  truth 
and  for  Freedom,  till  the  sun  has  ceased  to  greet  the 
pines,  and  the  surge  has  failed  to  heave  at  Plymouth. 
Those  settlements  which  so  manifestly  were  ordered  of 
God,  and  ordered  for  some  great  ultimate  purpose,  did 
not  come  out  to  their  final  fruitage  at  Lexington  and  at 
Concord,  or  when  the  sheeted  storm  of  fire  swept  down 
its  rain  and  iron  hail  along  the  sides  of  Bunker's  Hill. 
Our  national  independence  was  not  their  whole  prod- 
uct; nor  the  subsequent  swift  and  vast  expansion  of 
population  and  industry  over  the  even  then  unex- 
plored West,  making  the  valleys  beauteous  with  homes, 
making  the  mountains  laugh  with  harvests.  The 
influence  of  that  early  religious  colonization  is  still 
undoubtedly  to  travel  on,  over  the  mountains  and  into 
the  Future;  and  to  bring  forth  its  fruits  in  a  coming 
civilization,  when  we,  and  all  these  homes  of  ours,  are 
quite  forgot.  The  spirit  and  the  power  of  the  Fathers 
shall  not  fail  from  the  future  development  and  advance 
of  our  country,  till  their  vision  is  fulfilled,  and  the  East 
and  the  West,  clasping  hands  over  a  continent,  stand 
up  at  last,  mighty  and  pure,  to  regenerate  the  World! 
On  the  pillars  of  this  hope  it  is  ours  to  take  hold,  to 
draw  from  it  strength.  In  the  light  of  this  magnificent 
Future  it  is  ours  to  walk,  with  joyful  steps,  and  an 
ever-ascending  and  triumphing  faith ! 

But  yet,  while  I  feel  this,  I  cannot  but  see  that  at 
every  point  which  I  have  defined  as  primitive  and  car- 
dinal in  the  plan  of  our  Fathers,  we  have  departed  from 
the  model  they  proposed ;  and  not  in  the  way  of  devel- 


362  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

opment  and  enlargement,  but  of  definite  deviation,  if 
not  of  positive  contradiction  and  reversal. 

Where  they  put  all  reliance  on  ideas,  an'd  were  not 
careful  of  numbers  or  of  means  so  long  as  the  spiritual 
force  and  life  which  had  built  up  the  State  continued 
unbroken,  we  base  our  confidence  for  the  strength,  the 
prosperity  and  the  progress  of  our  country,  on  the  vast 
and  increasing  masses  of  population ;  on  the  wealth  that 
flows  in  on  us  in  a  constant  abundance ;  on  the  mecha- 
nisms that  make  all  commodities  cheap,  and  all  luxuries 
familiar;  on  the  commerce  that  connects  us  with  every 
nation  whose  realm  is  productive,  and  the  hem  of 
whose  borders  sweeps  outward  to  the  sea.  Religion 
with  us,  especially  in  the  cities,  instead  of  being  su- 
preme as  with  them,  the  law  of  our  growth,  and  the 
life  of  our  success,  is  rather  an  ornament  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  a  perquisite  of  the  rich ;  a  social  accomplishment ; 
almost  one  of  the  fine  arts ;  a  pleasant  accompaniment 
to  eloquence  and  to  music,  but  utterly  out  of  place  when 
attempting  to  inspire,  to  restrain  or  direct  men.  Its 
great  Institutions  turn  pale,  and  are  dumb,  before  the 
mandates  of  Power!  Like  the  sculptures  on  an  archi- 
trave, they  are  prominent  in  place,  not  an  element  of 
strength.  Public  justice  now  wants  the  sacredness  it 
had  in  the  Puritan  commonwealths ;  is  a  service  of  in- 
terest, whose  legitimacy  is  doubted,  not  an  austere 
and  solemn  sacrament  of  Right.  And  that  so  high  and 
glorious  doctrine  of  Personal  Liberty  which  they 
brought  hither,  and  which,  if  they  did  not  apply  it  to 
all  men,  they  applied  to  themselves  with  a  constancy 
and  a  vividness  that  made  fire-balls  but  its  exponents, — 
how  far  it  has  dropped  out  from  the  practice  of  our 
government,  and  almost  from  the  plan  of  its  adminis- 
tration, is  indicated  on  our  coins,  is  recorded  in  the 
current  histories  of  the  day,  is  disastrously  proclaimed 
in  the  novel  and  partisan  decisions  of  courts. 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS          363 

Instead  of  sternly  curbing  luxury,  we,  by  every 
means  possible,  invite  and  assist  it.  Instead  of  dis- 
couraging a  promiscuous  immigration,  we  make  the 
land  echo  with  a  polyglot  of  tongues,  and  drain  every 
monarchy  to  replenish  our  West.  Instead  of  small 
States,  and  those  thoroughly  organized,  we  seek  to 
make  each  successive  one  larger;  to  spread  it  to  ten 
times,  twenty  times,  forty  times,  the  size  of  those  first 
formed ;  and  then  we  measure  its  importance  and  great- 
ness by  its  square  leagues  of  soil,  its  navigable  rivers, 
the  mines  that  are  in  it,  and  the  frontier  wildernesses 
that  fringe  its  circumference,  not  by  the  might  of  MEN 
in  its  homes.  We  disregard  families,  we  override 
towns,  even,  in  constituting  these  States ;  accepting  no 
divisions  more  definite  than  of  counties,  and  basing  the 
right  of  suffrage  solely  on  the  two  conditions  of  age 
and  color,  without  reference  to  character  or  to  previous 
training.  We  seek  to  expand  artificially,  swiftly,  to  a 
visible  greatness,  where  the  Puritans  planned  to  or- 
ganize, and  to  educate,  and  to  grow  up  by  small  and 
gradual  increments.  We  aggregate  men  from  all 
climes  and  tongues,  and  call  that  a  nation  which  is 
only  a  casual  human  sand-bar,  accidentally  heaped  to- 
gether, from  different  soils,  by  meeting  currents,  while 
they  sought  to  make  a  nation  grow  up,  homogeneous 
and  compact,  of  shapely  development,  rooted  in  the  soil, 
springing  like  the  oak,  integrating  solidly  each  part 
with  the  rest  before  seeking  others,  and  swelling  each 
year  with  an  annulus  of  development. 

Instead  of  proposing  to  ourselves,  as  a  people,  any 
great,  enduring  and  noble  FRUIT,  of  beneficent  action, 
of  illustrious  character,  of  moral  impression  on  the 
world  we  are  part  of,  as  the  product  of  our  national 
expansion  and  power,  we  desire  and  consult  for  the 
mere  material  increase  of  the  State,  and  only  mean  to 
lead  the  nations  in  civic  prosperity  and  in  physical  en- 


364  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

terprise;  to  make  them  wonder  at  our  affluence,  not 
our  charity;  to  out-race  and  out-sail  them,  not  to  lead 
them  on  our  march  to  a  difficult  philanthropy.  That 
our  mines  are  the  richest,  our  cataracts  the  largest,  our 
prairies  the  widest,  our  lakes  the  longest,  our  clippers 
the  fleetest,  our  steamers  the  most  sumptuous,  our  gov- 
ernment the  most  free,  flexible,  and  wealthy,  our  peo- 
ple the  most  enterprising,  shrewd,  and  successful, — 
this  is  the  natural  boast  of  Americans,  with  which  to- 
day they  perambulate  Europe,  and  astonish  the  Turk ! 
And  the  spiritual  development  and  formation  of  char- 
acter, like  Washington's  or  John  Jay's,  we  hardly  have 
seen  any  tendencies  to  this  since  the  epoch  of  the  Revo- 
lution. The  drift  has  been  strong  the  other  way ;  turn- 
ing statesmen  into  demagogues,  rather  than  educating 
sciolists  to  be  statesmen.  The  undertaking  or  the  fos- 
tering of  great  missionary  enterprises,  to  enlighten  and 
elevate  a  barbarous  people,  no  dreamer  would  venture 
to  suggest  that  to  Congress.  The  founding  and  the 
nurturing  of  large  institutions,  for  the  blessing  and 
helping  of  those  who  come  after,  has  almost  passed 
from  the  plans  of  our  States.  It  is  left,  nearly  every- 
where, to  mere  private  munificence;  and  the  only  Na- 
tional Institute  we  have,  for  preserving,  advancing, 
and  distributing  knowledge,  was  the  gift  to  us  of  a 
foreigner,  who  never,  I  think,  stepped  foot  on  our 
shores. 

In  a  word,  the  spiritual  is  not  supreme  with  us ;  the 
material  is.  Engineering  is  to  us  what  interpreting 
the  Scriptures  was  to  the  Fathers.  Where  they  sent 
missionaries,  we  send  the  agents  of  secular  trade,  or 
stealthily  let  loose  piratical  filibusters.  Where  they  in- 
trenched the  culture  of  the  people  behind  their  highest 
and  firmest  muniments,  we  dedicate  government  to  the 
guardianship  of  property,  and  leave  all  else  to  take 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  365 

care  of  itself.  And  in  place  of  that  all-pervading  life, 
of  religious  conviction  and  personal  consecration, 
which  the  Fathers  sought  to  secure  and  perpetuate 
through  a  careful  organization,  with  the  Family  at  its 
centre,  we  trust  in  chariots  that  roll  over  the  land  at 
thirty  miles  to  the  hour,  and  in  horses  that  make  the 
very  deep  but  a  roadway ! 

Now  it  is  not  for  us  with  prostrate  souls  to  bewail 
these  tendencies,  as  if  there  were  nothing  but  unmin- 
gled  harm  in  them;  as  if  we  could  do  nothing  but  look 
backward  with  praises,  and  glorify  the  Past,  while 
lamenting  the  Present !  The  office  of  garnishing  sepul- 
chres is  not  ours,  nor  that  of  framing  commemorative 
odes.  It  is  ours  rather  to  accept  the  present  stage  as 
one  preordained  stage  in  our  national  development ;  to 
be  glad  of  and  to  welcome  all  the  agencies  which  it 
offers  us — of  a  printing-press  everywhere,  and  a  com- 
merce every  whither;  of  steam  beating  through  the 
fastnesses  of  the  hills,  and  crossing  the  craggiest 
chasms  at  a  leap;  of  lightning  flying  on  through  the 
interweaved  wires,  and  flashing  at  once  over  every  city 
a  common  intelligence, — it  is  ours  to  accept  these,  and 
to  use  them  for  good,  by  bringing  in  more  of  the  Puri- 
tan life,  and  trying  to  realize  with  new  fidelity  the 
Puritan  scheme  in  the  Nation  around  us.  We  may  do 
this  without  any  thing  of  narrowness  in  our  sympa- 
thies ;  without  any  thing  of  inordinate  deference  to  our 
ancestry. 

Each  national  stock  that  came  hither  at  first,  brought 
something  real,  and  something  important,  to  the  whole 
great  product.  We  claim  in  this  assembly  no  solitary 
indebtedness  to  the  Fathers  of  New  England.  The 
Hollanders  who  settled  at  this  mouth  of  the  Hudson, 
the  Cavaliers  of  Virginia,  the  Catholics  of  Maryland, 
the  Huguenots  of  the  Carolinas,  the  Friends  of  Penn- 


366  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

sylvania,  each  had  their  special  wealth  to  add  to  that 
unparalleled  christening-gift,  of  genius,  will,  and  emi- 
nent character,  with  which  the  new-born  Empire  here 
first  started  from  the  ocean  that  was  to  it  as  a  font! 
We  honor  them  all  for  their  worth  and  their  service. 
But  the  Puritans  added  theirs,  as  well  as  the  others; 
and  we,  as  by  nature  representatives  of  them,  are  to 
take  heed  that  what  to  them  was  peculiar  does  not  die 
out  of  the  history  of  the  land. 

They  were  not,  certainly,  infallible  men.  In  some 
gifts  of  nature,  they  were  doubtless  defective;  and  the 
circumstances  they  met  here  did  not  all  favor  them. 
They  had  drifted  out,  over  recent  seas,  to  a  country 
estranged  from  all  their  associations,  which  was  to 
them  as  another  planet,  and  which  lay  before  them 
shrouded  in  glooms,  of  forests  uncut,  of  unrelieved 
winters,  and  of  strange,  idolatrous,  dusky  inhabitants. 
Something  mystical  and  shadowy,  thus  entered  their 
character.  They  seemed  to  have  come  near  to  diabolic 
activities.  Witchcraft  was  not  incredible  to  them ;  and 
strange,  abnormal  growths  of  thought  were  certainly 
realized  in  their  new  environment.  Their  spiritual  life 
took  a  tone  from  the  woods.  The  wild  wrestling  of  the 
elements  woke  in  some  of  them  a  dark  sympathy. 
They  thought  Wilson  a  Prophet ;  Davenport  a  Moses ; 
Anne  Hutchinson  to  have  a  devil  in  her.  When  a 
snake  came  into  the  seat  of  the  elders,  assembled  at 
Cambridge  to  construct  their  platform  of  doctrine  and 
of  polity,  and  Thompson  of  Braintree,  "a  man  of  much 
faith,"  put  his  heel  on  its  head,  even  Winthrop  be- 
lieved that  the  Devil  had  come  there,  in  his  primitive 
form,  to  vex  the  Church.  And  Endicott,  the  undaunted 
and  indomitable  Governor,  the  very  type  of  the  Puri- 
tan, austere,  conscientious,  yet  cheerful  and  sociable, 
who  befriended  Roger  Williams,  and  cut  out  the  red 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  367 

cross  from  the  banners  of  England,  had  yet  his  pri- 
vate inconstancies  and  frailties,  and  did  not  live  up  to 
his  own  ideal. 

But  still  these  men  had  a  plan,  and  developed  it. 
They  worked  for  that  plan  with  a  sinewy  skill,  and  a 
self-consecration,  as  well  as  with  a  positive  power  of 
mind,  which  we  never  should  forget.  Behind  its  pillar 
of  light  they  trode,  through  a  history  rougher  than  any 
old  wilderness,  and  more  severe  than  sterile  plains. 
And  we  anew  should  pledge  ourselves  to  its  substance. 
New  England  was  dedicated  to  this  office  at  the  out- 
set, by  Him  who  gave  it  its  place  on  the  Continent — 
the  place  of  the  PULPIT — as  well  as  by  those  whom  He 
gathered  to  people  it,  and  to  fill  it  full  of  a  common 
life :  to  be  a  centre  and  seminary  of  Ideas ;  a  place  from 
which  invisible  forces,  to  organize  and  to  educate, 
should  go  widely  forth;  and  we  must  be  true  to  this 
hereditary  office.  Not  holding  ourselves  limited  to 
the  definite  forms  and  symbols  of  the  Fathers — accept- 
ing them,  if  we  do  it,  as  freely  as  they  did — we  yet 
must  make  Religion,  as  they  did,  supreme  and  all-pene- 
trating. Not  in  all  things,  perhaps,  allowing  to  the 
Father  such  authority  as  they  gave  him  over  his  house- 
hold, we  must  not  forget  that  the  Christian  Family  is 
central,  primordial,  in  the  Christian  Commonwealth; 
and  that  when  this  is  dissevered  and  lost,  submerged  by 
hotels,  or  dissolved  into  boarding-schools,  the  end  is 
not  far. 

Not  altogether  reproducing  their  ancient  statutes 
against  luxury  in  dress  and  immodest  amusements, 
we  yet  must  train  ourselves  and  others  to  a  Doric 
simplicity,  and  not  a  Corinthian  sumptuousness  of 
manners.  Not  trying  to  repeat  merely  their  special 
humanities,  we  must  not  shrink  from  those  harder  phi- 
lanthropies which  now  challenge  us.  And  without  re- 


368  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

peating  in  stated  terms  that  noble  formula  of  the  Oath 
of  the  Freeman  in  the  Massachusetts  Colony:  "More- 
over, I  do  solemnly  bind  myself,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
that  when  I  shall  be  called  to  give  my  voice,  touching 
any  such  matter  of  the  State  wherein  Freemen  are  to 
deal,  I  will  give  my  vote  and  suffrage  AS  I  SHALL 

JUDGE  IN  MINE  OWN  CONSCIENCE  MAY  BEST  CONDUCE 
AND  TEND  TO  THE  PUBLIC  WEAL  OF  THE  BODY,  without 

respect  of  persons,  or  favor  of  any  man;  so  help  me 
God,  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ!"  without  repeating  this 
in  terms,  we  must  incorporate  its  spirit  in  our  life,  and 
determine  that  no  assault  or  pressure,  of  person  or  of 
government,  of  power  or  of  Law,  shall  ever  induce  us 
to  violate  Conscience ! 

We  cannot  avoid  these  duties  which  are  on  us.  The 
Past  impels ;  the  Future  summons.  God  makes  us  me- 
diators between  ages  of  planting,  and  ages  of  fruitage. 
Deep  calleth  for  us  unto  deep;  those  early  Colonies, 
these  coming  States !  We  are  heirs  to  a  great  and 
costly  legacy,  of  valor  and  of  virtue.  The  blood  in 
our  veins  has  flowed  to  us  from  men  of  unusual  cour- 
age, foresight,  faith.  For  us  was  the  wise  and  heroic 
life  of  those  from  whom  the  Pilgrims  came,  watched 
over  by  their  love,  and  followed  by  their  prayers.  For 
us  was  the  large  moderation  of  Winthrop,  and  his 
sterling  sagacity ;  for  us,  the  rugged  energy  of  Dudley ; 
the  piety  of  Carver,  Bradford,  Wilson ;  for  us,  the  beau- 
tiful grace  of  Lady  Johnson;  for  us,  the  spirit  that 
looked  Death  in  the  face  from  the  clear,  bright  brow  of 
Henry  Vane !  A  cloud  of  witnesses  gathers  around  us, 
as  we  stand  here.  Those  thousand  graves,  among  dis- 
tant hills,  should  be  each  one  the  spring  of  an  influ- 
ence shooting  up  in  our  hearts  with  irrepressible  en- 
ergy. And  they  commit  us,  each  one  who  has  sprung 
from  the  breast  of  New  England,  to  the  vital  appro- 


RICHARD  SALTER  STORRS  369 

priation,  and  the  wide  propagation,  of  those  principles 
and  that  spirit  which  belonged  to  the  Fathers. 

Let  us  not  be  unmindful  of  this  ever-present  and 
sublime  obligation!  Let  us  brace  ourselves  to  this 
office,  and  pledge  ourselves  here  anew  to  its  fulfilment; 
to  incorporate  in  our  history  the  pattern  which  they 
whose  names  we  bear  "saw  in  the  mount!"  So  shall 
our  work  interlock  itself  with  theirs,  and  carry  it  for- 
ward. So  shall  the  fruits  which  they  expected  still 
spring  from  their  labors,  in  only  a  greater  profusion 
and  extent  than  they  dared  anticipate.  And  so  shall 
their  continual  prayer  be  answered  in  the  issue,  and 
God  shall  save  that  great  Confederacy  of  interweaved 
and  harmonized  States,  which  shall  be  then  ONE  COM- 
MONWEALTH ! 

It  is  now  proposed  to  erect  at  Plymouth,  on  the  spot 
of  their  landing,  an  obelisk  to  their  fame;  of  noble 
height;  of  just  proportions;  wrought  of  the  granite; 
circled  and  crowned  by  appropriate  figures.  In  that 
fit  work  let  us  all  take  part!  and  out  of  the  midst  of 
our  abundance,  raise  a  trophy  to  them  who,  with  a  sac- 
rifice that  we  cannot  reckon,  opened  for  us  the  gates  of 
our  prosperity.  But  let  us,  while  doing  this,  deter- 
mine also,  with  the  utmost  of  our  force,  so  far  as  in 
us  lies  by  nature,  so  far  as  God  may  give  us  grace,  to 
make  the  Land  which  we  inherit,  and  along  whose 
parallels  emigration  still  flows  from  their  frontier  seats, 
their  noblest  monument !  A  people  free,  in  every  part, 
the  aspiring  shaft;  universities,  churches,  the  sym- 
bolical statues;  enactments  of  righteousness,  the  bolts 
that  gird  it;  the  principles  of  philanthropy,  the  lines 
that  mould  its  rising  strength ;  and  a  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, that  lifts  one  hand  to  praise  the  Lord,  and 
stretches  the  other  to  bless  the  nations,  for  its  supreme 
and  culminating  figure! 


ORATION  AND   RESPONSE 


RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 
1870 


Published  by  permission  of  and  special  arrangement  with 
Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  the  sole  authorized  publishers 
of  Emerson's  Complete  Works. 


RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON 
(1803-1882.) 

No  fitter  choice  could  have  been  made  for  the  speaker  at  the  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
than  that  of  Mr.  Emerson,  the  personification  in  its  greatest 
strength  of  the  philosophic  strain  in  that  composite  termed 
the  New  England  character. 

The  address  as  printed  in  the  newspapers  was  altogether  faulty, 
and  it  is  owing  to  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Edward  W.  Emerson 
that  it  is  here  given  in  close  likeness  to  its  original  self.  There 
are,  however,  many  places  where  no  comparison  with  an  origi- 
nal was  possible,  and  especially  in  the  last  two  pages  the  errors 
of  the  reporter  have  doubtless  done  injustice  to  the  writer. 

It  was  near  the  close  of  Mr.  Emerson's  career  as  a  speaker,  this 
being  his  last  public  address  in  New  York.  Extracts  from  his 
reply  to  a  toast  at  the  dinner  of  this  year  were  published  in  the 
society  reports  and  are  here  included. 


ORATION 


I  GREET  this  assembly,  met  to  honor,  in  these  days 
of  the  solstice,  the  remembrance  of  this  day;  to 
compare  the  past  and  the  present.  Under  the  thoughts 
of  this  day  we  meet  as  friends,  though  we  were  all 
strangers  to  each  other.  The  impressive  virtue  of  the 
founders  of  the  American  Republic,  and  a  fortune 
equal ! — what  a  destiny !  That  little  patch  of  territory 
by  the  sea,  the  sands  of  Plymouth,  proved  to  be  no  cas- 
tle in  Spain,  but  the  immense  mistake  of  their  charter. 
The  territory  conferred  on  the  patentees, — in  absolute 
property  with  unlimited  jurisdiction,  the  sole  powers  of 
legislation,  the  appointment  of  all  officers,  etc., — ex- 
tended from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-eighth  degree  of 
north  latitude  and  in  longitude  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  This  immense  mistake,  incredible  had  they 
guessed  its  meaning,  is  literally  correct  to-day;  but  it 
has  taken  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  to  make  it  so. 
The  pines  of  Plymouth  woods  to-day  greet  the 
mammoth  sequoias  of  the  California  Coast  Mountains 
as  the  mutual  wealth  and  ornament  of  one  vast  State. 

1  This  oration  was  not  printed  a  great  part  of  this  matter,  but 

at  the  time,  and  the  report  of  in  a  different  arrangement,  is 

it  then  published  by  the  Trib-  found    in    the    paper    entitled 

une  was  very  imperfect.  "Boston,"  in  vol.  xii  (Natural 

Only  a  part  of  the  original  History    of    the   Intellect)    of 

manuscript  remains;  from  this  Emerson's    Complete    Works: 

corrections  have  been  made, but  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Bos- 

the  latter  two  thirds  could  not  ton. 
be  thus  corrected.    Fortunately, 

373 


374  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

One  law  binds  this  expansive  domain.  The  growth 
of  nations  is  not  for  the  most  part  continuous,  but  in- 
termittent by  successive  leaps;  but  this  nation  is  ex- 
ceptional. It  has  moved  as  the  sea  does;  here  are 
calms,  and  there  are  storms;  but  the  great  tidal  wave 
never  stopped  till  to-day  it  reaches  the  bounds  of  the 
Continent.  We  have  in  two  centuries  and  a  half  out- 
lived the  rise  and  fall  of  many  dynasties.  Great  des- 
tinies grow  by  their  impediments,  as  well  or  better; 
correct  their  faults,  and  draw  new  might  out  of  them. 

It  is  a  great  work  this  people  has  accomplished,  if 
it  has  taken  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  These  men, 
these  citizens,  these  planters  at  the  little  sandy  Ply- 
mouth tried  the  crucial  experiment.  After  many  fail- 
ures of  great  nations, — of  France,  of  Spain,  of  Hol- 
land, and  of  England, — some  of  them  under  renowned 
leaders  and  backed  by  kings,  to  get  a  footing  near- 
est to  Europe  on  this  continent,  these  poor  English 
outcasts,  without  the  aid  of  their  government, — nay,  in 
spite  of  its  jealousy  and  enmity, — by  the  might  of  their 
virtue  and  by  the  diligence  of  their  hands  and  the 
blessing  of  God,  have  to-day  carried  their  plantation 
to  a  perfect  success,  and  showed  mankind  how  the  work 
could  be  done.  It  was  on  a  small  scale;  the  men  were 
few  in  number ;  the  land  on  which  they  wrought  was  a 
sandy  desert ;  it  has  never  grown  to  a  large  population 
or  to  a  fruitful  country.  But  all  the  more  praise  to 
them  that,  against  these  disadvantages,  they  did  by 
their  good  sense  and  their  sublime  virtue  teach  man- 
kind how  to  overcome  every  evil  that  flesh  is  heir  to, 
and  build  a  free,  honest  and  happy  republic  on  a  desert 
shore. 

Their  example  was  fruitful  exceedingly.  Year  after 
year,  as  the  news  of  their  settlement,  their  stability  and 
success  reached  Europe,  new  colonists  arrived.  They 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  375 

built  Salem,  Boston;  they  peopled  Connecticut;  they 
peopled  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  and  Rhode  Island ; 
and,  in  the  sequel,  sent  out  their  numbers  and  posterity 
from  the  farthest  East  to  the  farthest  West. 

Gentlemen  and  ladies,  you  know  that  lately  a  careful 
study  of  English  history  has  shown  a  distinction  among 
those  early  settlers  which  adds  to  the  honor  of  Ply- 
mouth. The  English  reformers  in  Queen  Elizabeth's 
time  were  of  two  classes,  called  the  Puritans  and  the 
Brownists  or  Separatists.  After  the  death  of  Henry 
VIII,  the  Brownists  or  Separatists  resisted  the  Estab- 
lished Church  and  held  that  the  Church  was  the  spir- 
itual association,  Christ  being  its  sole  head.  The  Puri- 
tans, returning  from  exile  after  Elizabeth  had  settled 
the  Establishment,  were  disappointed  that  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Reformation  were  not  carried  farther,  but 
most  of  them  accepted  the  change, — Royal  Supremacy, 
Uniformity  of  Articles  of  Religion, — these  men  re- 
maining within  the  Church.  The  early  Puritans  were 
within  the  Establishment,  the  Separatists  or  Brownists 
outside  of  the  Establishment.  In  1582,  Act  23d,  Eliza- 
beth made  it  treason  to  worship  except  in  accordance 
with  the  form  prescribed  by  law,  and  the  Separatists 
were  brought  to  the  scaffold.  John  Scopping  and  Elias 
Thatcher,  in  1576,  were  executed  at  Bury-St.-Ed- 
munds,  and  William  Dennis  in  Norfolk.  Great  was  the 
behavior  of  John  Penry,  a  Welshman,  put  to  death  at 
Thomas-a- Watering  near  London  by  Archbishop  Whit- 
gift  in  May,  1593.  These  Separatists  are  the  origi- 
nators and  settlers  of  Plymouth  Colony.  There  was 
nothing  left  for  them  but  flight — their  death  was  sure 
if  they  remained  in  England.  John  Robinson,  pastor 
of  Scrooby,  then  of  Leyden,  William  Brewster,  at 
whose  house  in  Scrooby  the  Church  met,  and  William 
Bradford,  Governor  afterward  of  Plymouth, — these 


376  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

were  Separatists.  Later,  under  Archbishop  Bancroft, 
the  Puritans  also  within  the  Church  came  under  per- 
secution, and  then  they  formed  the  compact  to  go  to 
America  in  1628.  These  say  in  their  Letter,  "We  do 
not  go  to  New  England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church 
of  England,  though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the 
corruptions  in  it."  The  fathers  of  Plymouth  were  not 
Puritans,  but  Brownists  and  Separatists,  and  com- 
monly called  by  distinction  Pilgrims  because  there  was 
nothing  but  Pilgrimage  or  flight  before  them;  while 
those  who  settled  later,  as,  for  instance,  the  settlers  of 
Boston  ten  years  later,  Governor  Winthrop  and  Dudley 
and  others,  were  Puritans. 

At  daybreak  on  the  9th  of  November,  1620,  the  May- 
flower came  in  sight,  not  of  the  banks  of  the  Hudson, 
which  was  their  destination,  but  of  the  white  sands  of 
Cape  Cod,  the  bare  and  bended  arm  of  Massachusetts. 
They  steered  to  the  South,  but  falling  on  dangerous 
shoals,  returned  and  came  within  the  Cape,  and,  two 
days  later,  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  Provincetown. 
Their  arrival  was  only  the  first  step.  The  repairing  of 
their  boat,  the  searching,  the  weary  searching  of  the 
shores  in  the  snow  and  the  frost — many  of  these  neces- 
sities detained  them  long.  Their  survey  to  find  a  suit- 
able country  occupied  thirty  days,  and  not  until  the 
nth  of  December,  which  in  our  calendar  is  the  2ist 
of  December,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  to-day, 
the  exploring  party  of  Carver,  Bradford,  Winslow  and 
eight  others  of  the  principal  men,  in  the  shallop,  with 
eight  seamen,  decided  to  plant  themselves  on  the  Ply- 
mouth shore,  "and  returned  to  the  ship  with  this  news 
to  the  rest  of  their  people, — which  did  much  comfort 
their  hearts."  It  took  several  days  to  bring  the  ship 
and  its  company  to  the  harbor.  After  new  surveys, 
when  with  prayer  and  praise  they  had  fixed  on  the  spot 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  377 

whereon  to  build,  they  were  delayed  by  storm  and  the 
sacred  Sunday,  then  laid  out  their  little  town,  and 
began  their  work  on  Monday  the  25th,  which  was 
Christmas.  "We  went  on  shore,  some  to  fell  timber, 
some  to  saw,  some  to  rive,  some  to  carry,  and  no  man 
rested  on  that  day." 

It  took  long  to  gather  materials  of  every  kind,  to  lay 
out  the  lots  for  the  public,  and  for  the  individual  fami- 
lies. You  know  the  endless  afflictions  that  followed. 
Out  of  the  one  hundred  and  one  which  the  company 
counted,  half  perished  in  the  first  year.  When  new  re- 
cruits came  they  were  scant  of  bread  for  themselves. 
"They  are  forced  to  send  vessels  to  Monhegan  to  buy 
bread  of  the  ships  that  came  there  a-fishing;  forced  to 
live  on  ground  nuts,  clams,  and  mussels.  The  men,  in 
companies  of  six  or  seven,  take  their  turns  in  the  boat, 
go  out  with  the  net  and  fish,  and  return  not  till  they 
get  some,  though  they  be  five  or  six  days  out.  The 
rest  go  a-digging  shell-fish,  and  thus  we  live  the  sum- 
mer, only  sending  one  or  two  men  to  range  the  forest 
for  deer.  They  now  and  then  get  one,  and  in  winter 
are  helped  with  fowl  and  ground  nuts." 

John  Smith  writes  (1624)  of  this  country:  "Of  all 
the  four  parts  of  the  world  that  I  have  yet  seen,  not  in- 
habited, could  I  but  have  means  to  transport  a  colony, 
I  would  rather  live  here  [in  Massachusetts]  than  any- 
where, and  if  it  did  not  maintain  itself,  were  we  but 
once  indifferently  well  fitted,  let  us  starve."  Massa- 
chusetts he  calls  "the  Paradise  of  these  parts,"  notices 
its  high  mountains — perhaps  in  Massachusetts,  then,  he 
saw  the  peaks  of  the  White  Mountains.  Like  Morton, 
the  more  he  looked,  the  more  he  liked  the  country.  In 
1620  the  ground  was  covered  with  snow.  Snow  and 
moonlight  make  all  places  alike,  and  the  weariness  of 
the  sea,  the  shrinking  from  the  cold  weather  and  the 


378  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

pangs  of  hunger  must  justify  them.  But  the  next 
colony  planted  itself  at  Salem,  and  the  next  at  Wey- 
mouth,  and  another  at  Medford.  These  men,  using 
their  eyes  instead  of  jumping  at  the  first  sight  of  land, 
wisely  judged  that  the  best  point  for  a  city  was  at  the 
bottom  of  a  deep  and  islanded  bay  with  a  considerable 
river  penetrating  the  inland. 

In  all  ages  the  superstitious  have  believed  that  to 
certain  spots  on  the  surface  of  the  planet  certain  pow- 
ers attach,  and  an  exalted  influence  on  the  genius  of 
man.  There  is  great  testimony  of  discriminating  per- 
sons to  the  effect  that  Rome  is  endowed  with  the  en- 
chanting property  of  inspiring  a  longing  in  men  to 
live  and  die  there.  The  Emperor  Charles  V  thought 
of  Florence  in  the  same  manner,  and  London  has  laid 
its  claim  to  the  same  character  for  the  last  thousand 
years.  Physiologists  have  said,  "There  is  in  the  air 
a  hidden  food  of  life,"  and  they  believed  the  air  of 
mountains  and  the  seashore  a  potent  predisposer  to 
rebellion.  It  was  remarked  that  insulary  people  are 
versatile  and  addicted  to  change,  both  in  religious  and 
secular  affairs,  and  it  is  remarked  that  such  was  the 
force  of  New  England's  climate.  Of  the  East  Indian 
climate,  Sir  Erskine  Perry  says,  "The  usage  and  opin- 
ion of  the  Hindoos  so  invades  men  of  all  castes  and 
colors  who  deal  with  them  that  all  take  a  Hindoo  tint. 
Parsee,  Mongol,  Afghan,  Israelite,  Christian,  have 
passed  under  this  influence  and  have  exchanged  a  good 
part  of  their  patrimony,  of  their  ideas,  for  the  motions, 
manner  of  seeing,  and  habitual  tone  of  Indian  society. 
He  compares  it  to  a  geological  phenomenon  which  the 
black  soil  of  the  Dekkhan  offers — the  property,  namely, 
of  assimilating  to  itself  every  foreign  substance  intro- 
duced into  its  bosom. 

How  can  we  not  believe,  then,  in  influences  of  climate 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  379 

and  air,  when,  as  true  philosophers,  we  must  believe 
that  chemical  atoms  also  have  their  spiritual  cause  why 
they  are  thus  and  not  other ;  that  carbon,  oxygen,  alum, 
iron,  each  has  its  origin  in  spiritual  nature  ?  Who  lives 
one  year  in  New  England,  ranges  through  all  the  cli- 
mates of  the  globe.  And  if  the  character  of  the  people 
has  a  larger  range  and  a  greater  versatility,  perhaps 
they  may  thank  their  climate  of  extremes,  which  at  one 
season  gives  them  the  splendor  of  the  equator  and  a 
touch  of  Syria,  and  then  runs  down  to  a  cold  which  ap- 
proaches the  temperature  of  the  celestial  spaces. 

It  is  not  a  country  of  luxury  or  of  pictures ;  of  snows 
rather,  of  east  winds  and  changing  skies,  visited  by  ice- 
bergs, which,  floating  by,  nip  with  their  breath  our 
blossoms;  but  wisdom  is  not  found  with  those  who 
dwell  at  their  ease.  Rather  Nature  when  she  adds 
brain  adds  difficulty. 

I  do  not  speak  with  any  fondness,  but  the  language 
of  coldest  history,  when  I  say  that  Boston,  the  capital 
of  the  Fathers,  which  took  its  place  on  the  cold,  sandy 
shore  on  which  they  landed,  commands  attention  as 
the  town  which  was  appointed  in  the  destiny  of  nations 
to  lead  the  civilization  of  North  America.  I  have  con- 
sidered that  city  of  New  England  an  exceptional  com- 
munity, that  there  the  extraordinary,  abundant  means 
provided  by  private  bounty  and  public  care,  have  en- 
abled every  poor  man  to  secure  to  any  talent  in  his  child 
a  good  culture,  and  to  the  great  multitudes  of  the  mid- 
dle classes  a  finished  education,  in  its  libraries  and 
schools,  scholarships  and  schools  of  design,  and  in  the 
great  sympathy  of  the  community  with  any  spiritual 
talent.  What  Vasari  says  three  hundred  years  ago  of 
the  republican  city  of  Florence  might  be  said  of  Bos- 
ton: "That  the  desire  for  glory  and  honor  is  power- 
fully generated  by  the  air  of  that  place  in  the  men  of 


38o  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

every  profession,  whereby  all  who  possess  talent  are 
impelled  to  struggle  that  they  may  not  remain  in  the 
same  grade  with  those  whom  they  perceive  to  be  only 
men  like  themselves,  and  even  though  they  may  ac- 
knowledge such,  indeed,  to  be  masters ;  but  all  labor  by 
every  means  to  be  foremost." 

We  find  no  less  stimulus  in  our  native  air;  not  less 
ambition  in  our  blood,  which  Puritanism  has  not  suffi- 
ciently chastised ;  and  at  least  an  equal  freedom  in  our 
laws  and  customs,  with  as  many  and  as  tempting  re- 
wards to  toil ;  with  so  many  philanthropies,  humanities, 
charities  soliciting  us  to  be  great  and  good. 

A  capital  fact  distinguishing  this  colony  from  all 
other  colonies  was  that  the  persons  composing  it — the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  into  which  the  Plymouth  col- 
ony was  resolved — consented  to  come  on  the  one  con- 
dition that  the  charter  should  be  transferred  from  the 
company  in  England  to  themselves,  and  so  brought  the 
government  with  them. 

In  sixty-eight  years  after  its  foundation  Dr.  Mather 
writes  of  it :  "The  town  hath  indeed  three  elder  Sisters 
in  this  colony,  but  it  hath  wonderfully  outgrown  them 
all,  and  her  mother,  Old  Boston  in  England,  also. 
Yea,  within  a  few  years  after  the  first  settlement,  it 
grew  to  be  the  metropolis  of  the  whole  English 
America." 

The  town  of  Boston  has  a  history.  It  is  not  an 
accident.  It  is  not  a  windmill,  or  a  railroad  station,  or 
cross-roads  tavern,  or  an  army-barracks,  grown  up  by 
time  and  luck  to  a  place  of  wealth,  but  it  is  a  seat  of 
humanity,  of  men  of  principle  obeying  a  sentiment  and 
marching  loyally  whither  that  should  lead  them;  so 
that  its  annals  are  great  historical  lines  inextricably  na- 
tional, part  of  the  history  of  political  liberty. 

How  easy  it  is,  after  the  city  is  built,  to  see  where 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  381 

it  ought  to  stand.  In  our  beautiful  Bay,  covered  with 
sails  from  every  port;  with  its  islands  hospitably  shin- 
ing in  the  sun;  with  its  shores  trending  steadily  from 
the  two  arms  which  the  capes  of  Massachusetts  stretch 
out  to  the  sea  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  Bay  where  the 
city  domes  and  spires  sparkle  through  the  haze.  But 
it  took  ten  years  to  find  this  out. 

There  are  always  men  ready  for  adventures — more 
in  an  over-governed,  over-peopled  country,  where  all 
the  professions  are  crowded  and  all  character  sup- 
pressed, than  elsewhere.  This  thirst  for  adventure,  for 
war,  for  crusades,  for  gold-mines  in  a  new  country, 
speaks  to  the  imagination,  and  offers  free  swing  to  the 
confined  powers.  There  is  always  there  and  elsewhere 
a  class  of  innovation  and  one  of  repose.  In  political 
economy  all  capital  is  new.  The  fruit  of  the  last  night 
or  two  is  always  that  which  is  consumed  to-day. 
Waste  England,  waste  France,  waste  every  city  and 
every  town,  and  in  a  year  or  two  there  is  just  as  much 
wheat  and  hay  as  in  the  barns  and  fields  before.  It 
does  not  take  some  men  long  to  build.  Why,  it  is  in 
the  memory  of  all  of  us  when  the  solid  city  of  San 
Francisco  went  up  like  a  peddler's  booth  at  a  muster, 
or  a  camp-tent  in  an  army. 

The  planters  in  Massachusetts  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  hardy  men ;  rather  comfortable  citizens,  not  at  all 
accustomed  to  the  rough  task  of  discoverers,  and  they 
exaggerated  their  troubles.  Bears  and  wolves  were 
many,  but  early  they  believed  and  affirmed  there  were 
lions.  Captain  John  Smith  was  near  to  death  by  being 
stung  by  the  most  poisonous  tail  of  a  fish  called  a  sting- 
ray. In  a  journey  of  Rev.  Peter  Bulkeley  and  his 
company  through  the  forest  from  Boston  to  Concord, 
they  fainted  from  the  powerful  odor  of  sweet-fern  in 
the  sun,  like  what  befell,  still  earlier,  Biorn  and  Thor- 


382  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

firm,  Northmen,  in  their  expedition  to  the  same  coast, 
who  ate  so  many  grapes  from  the  wild  vines  that  they 
were  reeling  drunk.  The  lions  have  never  appeared 
since — nor  before.  Their  crops  suffered  from  pigeons 
and  mice.  Well,  Nature  has  never  again  indulged  in 
these  exasperations.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  last 
outrage  ever  committed  by  the  sting-ray,  the  sweet- 
fern,  or  the  fox-grape.  They  have  been  of  peaceable 
behavior  ever  since.  Every  engineer  or  lumberman  is 
accustomed  to  face  more  serious  dangers  than  any 
enumerated,  except  the  hostile  Indians.  But  the  awe 
was  real  and  overpowering  in  the  superstition  with 
which  every  object  was  magnified.  The  dangers  of  the 
wilderness  were  unexplored,  and,  in  that  time,  the  ter- 
rors of  witchcraft,  terrors  of  evil  spirits,  and  a  certain 
idea  of  terror  still  clouded  the  idea  of  God  in  the  mind 
of  the  purest. 

The  leaders,  however,  were  educated,  polite  persons, 
men  of  mark  and  of  good  estate,  and,  still  more,  ele- 
vated by  devout  lives.  As  cloud  on  cloud,  as  snow  on 
snow,  as  the  bird  on  air,  as  the  planet  rests  on  space  in 
its  flight,  so  do  the  natures  of  men  and  their  institutions 
rest  on  thoughts.  The  divine  will  descends  into  the 
barbarous  mind  in  some  strange  disguise ;  its  pure  truth 
not  to  be  guessed  from  the  rude  vizard  under  which  it 
goes  masquerading.  The  common  eye  cannot  tell  the 
bird  by  seeing  the  egg,  nor  distinguish  the  pure  truth 
from  the  grotesque  tenet  which  shields  it.  So  these 
Englishmen,  with  the  Middle  Ages  still  obscuring  their 
reason,  were  filled  with  Christian  thought.  They  had 
a  culture  of  their  own.  They  were  precisely  the  ideal- 
ists of  England — the  most  religious  in  a  religious  era. 
Who  can  read  the  fiery  ejaculations  of  St.  Augustine, 
a  man  of  as  clear  sight  as  almost  any  other ;  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  of  Milton,  of  Bunyan  even,  without  feeling 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  383 

how  rich  and  expansive  a  culture — not  so  much  a  cul- 
ture as  a  higher  life — they  owe  to  the  promptings 
of  this  sentiment?  Who  can  read  the  pious  diaries 
of  Englishmen  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth 
and  later,  without  a  sigh  that  we  write  no  diaries 
to-day?  Who  shall  restore  to  us  the  odoriferous  Sab- 
baths which  made  the  earth  and  the  humble  roof 
a  sanctuary?  I  trace  to  this  religious  sentiment  and 
its  culture,  great  and  salutary  results  to  the  people 
of  New  England;  first,  namely,  the  culture  of  intel- 
lect which  has  been  always  found  in  the  Calvinis- 
tic  Church.  It  was  these  men  who,  five  years  after 
their  landing  in  Boston,  founded  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. Many  and  rich  are  the  fruits  of  that  simple 
statute  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  "Or- 
dered, to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in 
the  graves  of  our  fathers,  that  every  township,  after 
the  Lord  hath  increased  them  to  fifty  households,  shall 
appoint  one  to  teach  all  the  children  to  read  and  write," 
and  so  forth ;  "and  where  any  town  shall  increase  to  the 
number  of  a  hundred  families  they  shall  set  up  a  Gram- 
mar School,  the  masters  thereof  being  able  to  instruct 
youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University." 
The  laborious,  economical,  rude  and  awkward  popula- 
tion of  New  England,  where  is  little  elegance  and  no 
facility;  with  great  accuracy  in  details,  little  spirit  or 
knowledge  of  the  world,  always  somewhat  leaned  to 
grace  and  elegance;  you  shall  not  infrequently  meet 
that  refinement  which  no  education  and  no  habit  of  so- 
ciety can  bestow,  which  makes  the  elegance  of  wealth 
look  stupid,  and  unites  itself  by  a  natural  affinity  to 
the  highest  minds  of  the  world,  nourishes  itself  on 
Plato  and  Dante,  Michael  Angelo  and  Milton;  on 
whatever  is  pure  and  sublime  in  art, — and,  I  may  say, 
gave  hospitality  in  this  country  to  the  spirit  of  Cole- 


384  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ridge  and  Wordsworth,  and  to  the  music  of  Beethoven, 
before  yet  their  genius  had  found  a  hearty  welcome  in 
Great  Britain.  It  is  the  property  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment to  be  the  most  refining  of  all  influences.  No  ex- 
ternal advantages,  no  good  birth  or  breeding,  no  cul- 
ture of  the  taste,  no  habit  of  command,  no  association 
with  the  elegant — even  no  depth  of  affection  that  does 
not  rise  to  a  religious  sentiment  can  bestow  that  deli- 
cacy and  grandeur  of  bearing  which  belong  only  to  a 
mind  accustomed  to  celestial  conversation.  All  else  is 
coarse  and  external,  all  else  is  tailoring  and  cosmetics 
beside  this,  for  thoughts  are  expressed  in  every  look 
or  gesture.  And  these  thoughts  are  as  if  angels  had 
talked  with  the  child.  Michael  Angelo  said :  "As  from 
fire  heat  cannot  be  separated,  neither  can  beauty  from 
the  eternal,"  and  this  sentiment  gives  a  rich  purpose 
to  generous  and  manly  schemes. 

John  Smith  says  that  "thirty,  forty  or  fifty  sail  went 
yearly  to  America,  only  to  trade  and  fish,  but  nothing 
would  be  done  for  a  plantation  till  about  some  hundred 
of  your  Brownists  of  England,  Amsterdam  and  Leyden 
went  to  the  new  Plymouth,  whose  humorous  igno- 
rances caused  them  for  more  than  a  year  to  endure  a 
wonderful  deal  of  misery,  with  an  infinite  patience." 
The  action  of  Endicott  and  Winthrop  in  securing  a 
charter  for  Massachusetts  shows  as  if  they  felt  the  dan- 
ger which  threatened  the  institutions  of  home.  They 
wished  to  make  a  New  England  with  the  habits  of 
youth.  The  great  speed  and  success  which  distin- 
guished the  planting  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  over 
any  other  in  history,  owe  themselves  to  two  consider- 
ations— namely,  the  subdivision  of  the  State  into  small 
corporations  of  land  and  power,  and  the  subdivision  of 
power,  each  man  forming  part  of  that  perfect  struc- 
ture growing  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  occasion. 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON 

Instructed  by  necessity,  each  little  company  organized 
itself,  after  the  pattern  of  the  larger  towns,  by  appoint- 
ing its  constable  and  half-military  officers.  In  Massa- 
chusetts as  early  as  1633  the  office  of  townsman  or 
selectman  appears  first  appointed  by  the  General  Court. 
In  1635  the  Court  says,  "Whereas  particular  towns 
have  many  things  which  concern  only  themselves,  it 
is  Ordered,  that  the  freemen  of  every  town  shall  have 
power  to  dispose  of  their  own  lands  and  woods,  and 
choose  their  particular  officers."  This  pointed  chiefly 
at  the  office  of  constable,  but  they  soon  chose  their  own 
selectmen  and  very  early  assessed  taxes,  a  power  at 
first  resisted,  but  speedily  confirmed  to  them. 

It  was  on  doubts  concerning  their  own  power  that 
in  1634  a  committee  repaired  to  Governor  Winthrop 
for  counsel,  and  he  advised,  seeing  the  freemen  were 
grown  so  numerous,  to  send  deputies  from  every  town 
once  in  a  year  to  revise  the  laws  and  to  assess  all 
moneys;  and  the  General  Court,  thus  constituted,  only 
needed  to  go  into  separate  session  from  the  Council, 
as  they  did  in  1644,  to  become  essentially  the  same 
assembly  they  are  to-day.  The  governor  conspires 
with  the  townsmen  in  limiting  his  claims  to  their  obe- 
dience, and  values  much  more  their  love  than  his  char- 
tered authority.  The  disputes  between  that  forbear- 
ing man  and  the  deputies  are  like  the  quarrels  of  girls, 
so  much  do  they  turn  upon  complaints  of  unkindness 
and  end  in  such  loving  reconciliations.  In  a  town- 
meeting  the  great  secret  of  political  science  was  uncov- 
ered and  the  problem  solved  how  to  give  every  indi- 
vidual his  fair  weight  in  the  government  without  any 
disorder  from  numbers.  In  a  town-meeting  the  roots 
of  society  were  reached.  Here  the  rich  gave  counsel, 
but  the  poor  also,  and,  moreover,  the  just  and  the  un- 
just. I  had  occasion  some  time  since  to  look  over  with 


386  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

much  attention  the  whole  series  of  Town  Records  in 
one  interior  town  in  Massachusetts,  which  happened  to 
have  had  an  important  share  in  the  early  history  of  the 
colony.  He  is  ill  informed  who  expects,  in  running 
down  the  Town  Records  for  two  hundred  years,  to  find 
a  church  of  saints,  a  metropolis  of  patriots  enacting 
wholesome  and  reasonable  laws.  The  constitution  of 
the  towns  forbid  it.  In  this  open  democracy  every 
opinion  had  utterance,  every  objection,  every  fact,  every 
acre  of  land,  every  bushel  of  rye  its  just  weight.  The 
moderator  was  the  passive  mouthpiece,  and  the  vote 
of  the  town,  like  the  vane  on  the  turret  overhead,  free 
for  every  wind  to  turn,  and  always  turned  by  the 
last  and  strongest  breath.  In  these  assemblies  the 
public  weal,  the  call  of  interest,  duty,  religion  were 
heard,  and  every  local  feeling,  every  private  grudge, 
every  suggestion  of  petulance  and  ignorance  was  not 
less  faithfully  produced.  Wrath  and  love  came  to 
the  town-meeting  in  company.  In  1641  a  law  was 
passed  that  every  man  might  introduce  any  business 
into  the  public  meetings.  The  ill-spelled  pages  of  the 
Town  Records  contain  the  results.  I  shall  be  excused 
for  confessing  that  I  have  set  a  value  upon  every  symp- 
tom of  meanness  and  pique  in  those  antique  books,  as 
proof  that  justice  was  done :  that  if  the  results  of  our 
history  are  approved  as  wise  and  good,  it  was  yet  a  free 
strife ;  if  the  good  counsel  prevailed,  the  sneaking  coun- 
sel did  not  fail  to  be  suggested ;  and  freedom  and  virtue, 
if  they  triumphed,  triumphed  in  a  fair  field.  And  so 
be  it  an  everlasting  testimony  and  so  much  ground  of 
assurance  of  man's  capacity  for  self-government. 

I  esteem  it  the  happiness  of  Boston  that  its  settlers, 
while  exploring  their  natural  and  granted  rights  and 
determining  the  power  of  the  magistrate,  were  united 
by  personal  affection.  Members  of  a  church  before 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  387 

whose  searching  covenant  all  ranks  were  abolished, 
they  stood  in  awe  of  each  other  as  religious  men.  The 
cords  of  authority  were  there  examined  for  their  sound- 
ness. Governor  Winthrop,  in  his  speech  to  the  peo- 
ple, tells  them  "that  he  had  received  gratuities  from 
divers  towns  with  much  comfort  and  content;  that 
he  had  also  received  many  kindnesses  from  particular 
persons,  which  he  would  not  refuse,  lest  he  be  ac- 
counted uncourteous,  but  he  professed  that  he  received 
them  with  a  trembling  heart  in  regard  of  God's  rule 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  own  infirmity,  and  desired 
that  they  would  not  take  it  ill  if  he  did  refuse  presents 
from  private  persons,  except  they  were  assistants  or 
some  special  friends."  He  was  told  afterward  that 
many  good  people  were  grieved  at  it,  for  that  he  had 
never  any  allowance  towards  the  charge  of  his  place. 
The  ambition  of  power  of  that  day  had  not  the  greedi- 
ness of  this.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  labor,  and 
there  was  no  reward  of  money,  but  great  risk  of  spend- 
ing your  own  estate.  In  1623  "it  was  enacted,  by  pub- 
lic consent  of  the  freemen  of  New  Plymouth,  that  if 
now  or  hereafter  any  man  were  elected  to  the  office  of 
Governor  and  would  not  stand  to  the  election,  nor  hold 
nor  execute  the  office  for  the  year,  that  then  he  be 
amerced  in  twenty  pounds  sterling  fine,  to  be  levied 
out  of  the  goods  and  chattels  of  the  person  so  refusing. 
If  any,  elected  to  the  office  of  Council,  refused  to  hold 
the  place,  that  then  he  be  amerced  in  ten  pounds  ster- 
ling fine." 

With  all  their  love  for  his  person,  they  took  immense 
pleasure  in  turning  out  the  Governor  and  Deputy  and 
assistants,  and  in  contravening  the  counsel  of  the  clergy, 
when  they  urged,  as  John  Cotton  did,  that  they  should 
make  the  Governor  perpetual,  and  that  they  should  make 
the  office  of  the  Assistant  perpetual.  A  house  in  Boston 


388  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

was  worth  as  much  again  as  a  house  as  good  in  a  town 
of  timorous  people,  because  here  the  neighbors  would 
defend  each  other  against  bad  governors  and  the  troops. 
Quite  naturally,  house-rents  rose  in  Boston.  There 
never  was  wanting  some  thorn  of  dissent  and  innova- 
tion to  prick  the  sides  of  conservatism  in  that  town. 
I  know  that  history  contains  many  black  lines  of  cruel 
injustice — the  murder  of  Quakers,  the  murder  of  Mian- 
tonomoh  (the  Indian  princess),  the  persecution  of 
Wheelwright,  and  other  acts  of  injustice,  but  the  seed 
of  prosperity  was  planted.  It  is  the  honorable  dis- 
tinction of  that  first  colony  of  Plymouth,  of  the  Pil- 
grims, not  of  the  Puritans,  that  they  did  not  persecute ; 
that  those  same  persons  who  were  driven  out  of  Massa- 
chusetts then  were  received  in  Plymouth.  They  did 
not  banish  the  Quakers. 

The  seed  of  prosperity  was  planted.  The  people 
did  not  gather  where  they  had  not  sown.  They  did 
not  try  to  unlock  the  treasure  of  the  world,  except  by 
honest  keys  of  labor  and  skill.  The  Massachusetts 
colony  grew  and  filled  its  own  borders  with  a  denser 
population  than  any  other  American  State,  all  the 
while  sending  out  colonies  to  every  part  of  New  Eng- 
land, then  South  and  West  until  it  has  infused  all  the 
Union  with  its  blood. 

Boston  is  sometimes  pushed  into  an  attitude  of  theat- 
rical virtue  to  which  she  is  not  entitled,  and  which  she 
cannot  keep;  but  the  genius  of  the  place  is  seen  in  her 
real  independence,  the  productive  power,  and  Northern 
acuteness  of  mind  which  is  in  nature  hostile  to  op- 
pression. America  is  growing  like  a  cloud,  towns  on 
towns,  States  on  States,  and  wealth,  always  interesting, 
since  from  wealth  power  cannot  be  divorced,  is  piled 
in  every  form  invented  for  comfort  and  pride. 

The  State  papers  that  have  emanated  from  Boston, 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  389 

from  its  Governor  Winthrop  down  to  its  Governors 
Andrew  and  Claflin,  have  drawn  admiration,  while  the 
decisions  of  its  courts  are  respectable  and  respected. 
Literary  ability  was  brought  with  us  when  we  came, 
and  it  was  never  quite  lost.  Mather's  "Magnalia,"  the 
first  important  book  by  a  native  in  this  country,  has  a 
vitality  still  which  makes  it  entertaining  reading.  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  knew  how  to  write,  and  John  Adams 
also.  The  Fourth  of  July  orations  I  give  up  to  the 
compliments  of  the  official  bodies  who  heard  them,  and 
the  American  sermons  before  the  days  of  Channing  I 
leave  to  those  who  heard  them.  I  confess  I  do  not 
find  in  our  people,  with  all  their  education,  a  fair  share 
of  originality  of  thought,  not  any  remarkable  book  of 
wisdom,  not  any  broad  generalization,  any  equal  power 
of  imagination.  Nature  is  a  frugal  mother,  and  never 
gives  without  measure.  When  she  has  work  to  do  she 
qualifies  men  for  that  and  sends  them  equipped  for  that. 
In  Massachusetts  she  did  not  want  epic  poems  and 
dramas  yet,  but  first,  planters  of  towns  and  fellers  of 
the  forest,  builders  of  mills  and  forges,  builders  of 
roads,  and  farmers  to  till  and  harvest  corn  for  the 
world. 

Boston  never  wanted  a  good  principle  of  rebellion  in 
it  from  its  planting  until  now ;  there  is  always  a  minor- 
ity unconvinced;  always  a  heresiarch  whom  the  gov- 
ernor and  deputies  labor  with  but  cannot  silence ;  some 
new  light,  some  new  doctrinaire  who  makes  an  unneces- 
sary ado  to  establish  his  dogma;  some  Wheelwright 
or  defender  of  Wheelwright;  some  protester  against 
the  cruelty  of  the  magistrates  to  the  Quakers;  some 
tender  minister  hospitable  to  Whitefield  against  the 
counsel  of  all  the  ministers;  some  John  Adams  and 
Josiah  Quincy  and  Governor  Andrew  to  undertake  and 
carry  the  defense  of  patriots  in  the  courts  against  the 


390  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

uproar  of  all  the  Province ;  some  defender  of  the  slave 
against  the  politician  and  the  merchant ;  some  champion 
of  first  principles  of  humanity  against  the  rich  and 
luxurious;  some  adversary  of  the  death  penalty;  some 
pleader  for  peace;  some  noble  protestant  who  will  not 
stoop  to  infamy  when  all  are  gone  mad,  but  will  stand 
for  liberty  and  justice  if  alone,  until  all  come  back 
to  him.1 

I  fear  to  confine  your  attention  too  long  to  the  annals 
of  this  town,  though  I  am  presuming  on  the  presence 
of  the  friends  of  New  England,  and  therefore,  such 
details  are  not  impertinent;  but  we  will  say  that  never 
country  had  such  a  fortune,  as  men  call  fortune,  as  this 
of  ours  in  its  geography,  its  history,  and  the  advan- 
tage which  the  American  has  over  all  other  nations. 
Well,  one  of  them  is  his  domain.  Great  country  ex- 
pands our  views  of  men  and  things.  Room  it  gives 
for  wide  variety  of  talents.  America  is  England  seen 
through  a  magnifying  glass.  There  can  be  no  famine 
in  a  country  reaching  through  so  many  degrees  of 
latitude  as  ours;  no  want  that  cannot  be  supplied. 
European  critics  regret  the  detachment  of  the  Puritans 
to  this  country  without  aristocracy,  which  a  little  re- 
minds one  of  the  pity  of  the  Swiss  mountaineers,  who 
said,  when  shown  a  handsome  Englishman,  "What  a 
pity  he  has  no  goitre!"  The  future  historian  will  re- 
cord the  detachment  of  the  Puritans  without  aristoc- 
racy the  supreme  fortune  of  the  colony,  and  as  great  a 
gain  to  mankind  as  the  opening  of  this  Continent. 
For  what  principally  characterizes  America  is  the  no- 
bility of  her  institutions.  It  is  the  perpetual  insurrec- 
tion which  is  the  quality  which  secures  their  continu- 

1  The  original  of  the  follow-      evidently  faulty,  had  to  be  re- 
ing  pages  is  for  the  most  part      produced, 
lost,  and  the  newspaper  report, 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  391 

ity,  and  rectifies  all  errors  by  perpetual  appeals  to  the 
people.  England  has  a  great  deal  of  cheap  wit  upon 
America.  She  dislikes  our  manners,  gives  us  kind 
counsel,  and  is  often  quite  right  in  her  criticisms;  we 
make  the  same  ourselves.  But  is  this  the  real  opinion 
of  England  which  we  read  in  the  London  Times, 
Punch  and  other  journals?  I  think  not.  I  rather 
choose  to  read  British  opinions  in  this — in  the  immense 
emigration  of  English  people  to  these  shores,  the  im- 
mense commerce  that  is  carried  on  between  London 
and  New  York,  the  immense  investment  of  British 
capital  in  this  country.  The  American  sits  secure  in 
the  possession  of  his  vast  domain,  sees  its  inevitable 
force  unlocking  itself  in  elemental  order  day  by  day 
and  year  by  year,  looks  from  his  coal-fields,  his  wheat- 
bearing  prairies,  his  gold-mines,  to  his  two  oceans  on 
either  side,  regards  with  security  not  only  the  annexa- 
tion of  English  colonies,  but  the  annexation  of  Eng- 
land. England  has  long  been  the  cashier  of  the  world, 
but  the  English  merchant  must  soon  pass  from  India 
by  the  Pacific  Railroad  and  must  make  his  exchanges 
in  New  York.  This  is  but  a  type  of  many  other 
changes.  We  read  without  pain  what  they  say  to  the 
advantage  of  England  and  to  the  disadvantage  of 
America,  for  are  we  not  the  heir? 

"Percy  is  but  my  factor,  good  my  lord." 

England  has  made  herself  the  founder  of  her  colo- 
nies— educating  the  native  population  in  good  schools, 
putting  them  in  good  employment,  aiming  to  put  them 
in  a  condition  to  attend  to  their  own  affairs.  Colonies 
have  grown  to  empires,  and  then,  with  her  full  consent, 
have  been  released  from  her  legislative  authority. 
England  should  say,  "Go;  I  have  given  you  English 
equality,  English  laws,  manners  and  customs;  de-Ang- 


392  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

licize  yourselves  if  you  can."  When  we  see  for  our- 
selves that  her  own  foreign  interest  is  to  assure  herself 
at  all  time  of  the  friendly  relations  of  America,  which 
is  one  with  her  by  speech,  by  religious  equality  and  by 
equal  civilization,  in  all  the  dangers  which  are  likely 
to  threaten  her  from  other  nations,  America  is  sure  to 
sympathize  with  her,  and  extend  a  protection  as  noble 
to  bestow  as  to  receive.  In  estimating  nations,  it  is 
well  to  consider  the  nature  that  is  underneath;  thus  in 
England  it  is  well  to  consider  what  criticism  we  can 
make.  There  are  noble  men  there,  yet  all  thoughtful 
men  know  that  the  force  of  that  race  may  still  any  day 
turn  out  a  better  man  than  any  now  there.  England 
has  a  higher  school,  has  more  writers,  but  we  read  out 
of  her  books ;  she  has  a  better  poet.  They  have  a  better 
blow-pipe  there,  but  we  have  a  continent  full  of  coal. 
England  has  six  points  of  Chartism;  let  us  see  what 
they  are :  Universal  suffrage,  vote  by  ballot,  paid  legis- 
lation, annual  Parliament,  equality  of  electoral  dis- 
tricts, no  property  qualifications.  They  have  all  been 
granted  here.  England  has  still  a  load  to  carry.  We 
began  with  this  freedom,  and  are  defended  from  shocks 
for  the  future  by  the  celerity  with  which  every  measure 
of  reform  can  instantly  be  carried. 

I  have  detained  you  too  long.  History  teaches  by 
experiment — this  which  we  study  to-day  is  one  of  the 
best  experiments  by  the  smallness  of  the  means  and  the 
largeness  of  the  results.  The  little  colony  of  Ply- 
mouth since  1792  has  merged  itself  in  the  Colony — 
not  long  after  State — of  Massachusetts,  and  is  repre- 
sented by  Boston,  in  which  her  sons  have  adorned  and 
prospered  the  State.  That  little  representative  town 
has  grown  to  a  census  of  270,000  souls.  She  has  her 
large  share  of  emigration,  yet  can  only  prosper  by  ad- 
hering her  faith,  to  the  moral  power  of  the  forefathers 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  393 

of  her  State.  The  other  cities  into  which  she  has 
sent  her  sons  have  almost  outgrown  the  little  town 
from  which  they  departed.  In  your  strict  relations  to 
that  city,  I  know  you  will  join  me  in  the  hope  that 
every  child  that  is  born  of  her  and  every  child  of  her 
adoption  will  keep  her  name  as  clean  as  the  sun,  and  in 
distant  years  the  motto  on  her  shield,  Sicut  patribus, 
sit  Deus  vobiscum,  shall  be  the  prayer  of  millions  in 
all  the  lands  into  which  our  children  have  emigrated. 
May  they  always  say,  "As  with  our  Fathers,  so  God  be 
with  us" — Sicut  patribus,  sit  Deus  vobiscum. 


RESPONSE 


YOU  are  very  prodigal  in  your  goodness,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, but  my  duties  for  last  night  were  prevented, 
and  I  had  not  been  instructed  that  I  was  to  answer  to 
any  such  remarkable  compliments  to-night.  I  feel  the 
dignity  and  beauty  of  the  occasion,  and  rejoice  very 
much  in  the  noble  and  generous  words  that  have  been 
spoken,  certainly  by  yourself  and  the  representatives 
of  the  Navy  Department  from  Washington.  These 
high  tributes  to  New  England  history  and  genius  I 
rejoice  in.  They  are  noble,  and  I  have  a  feeling  that 
the  audience  around  me,  of  New  England  men,  New 
England-born  or  New  England-descended,  recognized 
the  literal  truth  of  whatever  statements  have  been 
made.  I  have  perhaps  an  inordinate  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  New  England  history,  and  perhaps  exag- 
gerate the  influence  which  that  history  has  had  and 
shall  have  in  the  world,  but  certainly  I  have  not  been 
contradicted  in  my  sentiment  by  anything  that  has  been 
uttered  here  to-night.  You  will  think  I  am  a  little 
"green,"  perhaps,  but  I  accept  it  all  as  literally  true; 
indeed  I  think  we  have  much  more  to  claim  and  much 
more  to  affirm  than  anything  you  have  yet  heard.  I 
fully  believe  that  the  remarkable  history  of  the  fathers 
of  New  England  is  not  yet,  with  all  our  appreciation  of 
that  colony,  held  at  its  full  claim,  and  I  trust  that  we 
shall  never  be  false  to  our  estimate  thereof.  I  know 

394 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON  395 

very  well  the  part  which  comedy,  which  satire,  which 
the  poets  and  romancers  have  played  in  that  history, 
and  that  much  of  it  is  become  a  Punch  picture  and 
ridiculous,  which  was,  in  its  origin  and  in  its  act,  real, 
true  and  great,  and  I  am  quite  willing  to  indulge  the 
present  generation  in  any  underestimate  which  they 
may  hold. 

At  the  same  time,  I  am  quite  free  to  believe  that 
there  was  an  excess  of  a  certain  enthusiasm  in  that  set- 
tlement; that  there  were  many  individualities,  I  may 
say,  carried  to  an  extreme ;  that  there  were  many  prose- 
cutions which  we  regret ;  that  there  were  many  prosecu- 
tions which  cannot  be  defended;  but  that  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  that  the  spirit  of  justice,  that  the  power  of 
progress  existed  then  and  has  not  ceased  to  effect  its 
logical  consequences  in  this  country  and  throughout 
this  country.  I  also  firmly  believe  that  we  are  in- 
debted to  the  sanctity  of  the  men  who  founded  the  Ply- 
mouth Colony,  and  of  the  milder  class  of  gentlemen 
who  formed  the  colony  of  Boston ;  and  that  this  whole 
country  is  indebted  to  them  for  the  establishment  of 
the  right  principles  of  the  existing  American  Consti- 
tution is  my  firm  belief,  and  is  the  reason  for  my  ac- 
cepting, sir,  your  invitation  to  come  to  this  festival. 

I  have  no  right,  to  be  sure,  to  pass  your  limitation 
of  five  minutes  for  each  respondent,  but  I  perhaps  have 
some  hereditary  right  to  speak  for  Plymouth,  being  the 
descendant  of  a  very  early  Pilgrim,  myself  the  seventh 
in  a  series  of  clergymen  descended  from  the  founder  of 
a  colony  that  went  to  Concord,  Massachusetts ;  I  have 
indeed  to  say  for  them  that  their  virtues  were  some- 
times pushed  to  excess ;  we  know  them  as  Puritans,  we 
know  them  sometimes  as  extremists,  and  perhaps  mod- 
ern philosophy  has  done  something  for  benefit  in  its 
qualification  of  their  extreme  and  severe  views.  I  re- 


396  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

member  well,  I  might  almost  say  it  is  a  matter  of  fam- 
ily history  to  me,  that  in  the  old  times  if  a  man  became 
rich  he  was  disowned  by  all  his  relations.  I  have 
heard  that  people  of  that  time  of  colonization  were  so 
good  that  when  they  were  out  in  the  huckleberry  pas- 
tures they  had  to  hold  hard  on  the  huckleberry  bushes 
for  fear  they  would  be  translated.  They  were  enam- 
oured of  death  instead  of  life.  They  preferred  to  ride 
on  a  horse  to  riding  in  a  carriage.  Perhaps  they  carried 
their  virtues  a  little  into  extremes,  but  I  wish  to  confirm 
all  that  I  have  heard  from  the  eloquent  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  and  all  that  was  seriously  said  by  our 
esteemed  president  on  this  occasion,  and,  gentlemen,  I 
will  relieve  you. 


ORATION 


GEORGE  WILLIAM   CURTIS 
1885 


From  "Orations  and  Addresses  of  George  William  Curtis." 
Copyright,  1893,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS 

» 
(1824-1892) 

JUNE  6,  1885,  the  society  unveiled  in  Central  Park  a  statue,  "The 
Puritan,"  by  Mr.  J.  Q.  A.  Ward.  It  stands  on  a  rise,  looking 
on  the  East  Drive.  The  orator  chosen  for  this  day  was  Mr. 
Curtis,  then  editor  of  "Harper's  Weekly,"  and  in  the  midst  of 
his  long  warfare  in  behalf  of  civil-service  reform.  The  "How- 
adji"  books,  "Potiphar  Papers,"  "Prue  and  I,"  and  "Lotus- 
Eating"  had  made  him  well  known  before  1857.  He  began  his 
career  in  New  York,  in  1851,  with  the  "Tribune."  Later  he 
was  connected  with  "Putnam's  Monthly,"  and  in  1858  he  com- 
menced the  series  of  essays  in  "Harper's  Magazine"  that,  under 
the  name  of  the  "Easy  Chair,"  ran  with  never-ceasing  charm 
and  brilliancy  for  over  thirty  years. 


ORATION 


rrX)-DAY  and  here,  we,  who  are  children  of  New 
England,  have  but  one  thought,  the  Puritan;  one 
pride  and  joy,  the  Puritan  story.  That  transcendent 
story,  in  its  larger  relations,  involving  the  whole  mod- 
ern development  and  diffusion  and  organization  of 
English  liberty,  touched  into  romance  by  the  glowing 
imagination,  is  proudly  repeated  by  every  successive 
generation  of  the  English-speaking  race,  and  lives  and 
breathes  and  burns  in  legend  and  in  song.  In  its 
greatest  incident,  the  Pilgrim  emigration  to  America, 
it  is  a  story  of  achievement  unparalleled  in  the  annals 
of  the  world  for  the  majesty  of  its  purpose  and  the 
poverty  of  its  means,  the  weakness  of  the  beginning 
and  the  grandeur  of  the  result.  Contemplating  the 
unnoted  and  hasty  flight  by  night  of  a  few  English- 
men from  the  lonely  coast  of  Lincolnshire  to  Holland, 
— the  peaceful  life  in  exile, — the  perilous  ocean-voyage 
afterward,  lest  in  that  friendly  land  the  fervor  of  the 
true  faith  should  fail, — the  frail  settlement  at  Ply- 
mouth, a  shred  of  the  most  intense  and  tenacious  life  in 
Europe  floating  over  the  sea  and  clinging  to  the  bleak 
edge  of  America,  harassed  by  Indians,  beset  by  beasts, 
by  disease,  by  exposure,  by  death  in  every  form,  be- 
yond civilization  and  succor,  beyond  the  knowledge  or 
interest  of  mankind,  a  thin,  thin  thread  of  the  Old 

399 


400  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

World  by  which  incalculable  destinies  of  the  New 
World  hung,  yet  taking  such  vital  hold  that  it  swiftly 
overspreads  and  dominates  a  continent  covered  to-day 
with  a  population  more  industrious,  more  intelligent, 
happier,  man  for  man,  than  any  people  upon  which  the 
sun  ever  shone — contemplating  this  spectacle,  our  ex- 
ulting hearts  break  into  the  language  which  was  most 
familiar  to  the  lips  of  the  Pilgrims, — a  paean  of  tri- 
umph, a  proud  prophecy  accomplished, — "The  desert 
shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose."  "A  little  one 
shall  become  a  thousand,  and  a  small  one  a  strong 
nation." 

Here,  indeed,  we  are  far  from  the  scenes  most  fa- 
miliar to  the  eyes  of  the  Pilgrims;  we  are  surrounded 
by  other  traditions  and  solicited  by  other  memories. 
But  under  these  radiant  heavens,  amid  this  abounding 
beauty  of  summer,  our  hearts  go  backward  to  a  winter 
day.  The  roaring  city  sinks  to  a  silent  wilderness. 
These  flower-fringed  lawns  become  a  barren  shore. 
This  animated  throng,  changed  to  a  grave-faced  group 
in  sombre  garb,  scans  wistfully  the  solitary  waste. 
The  contrast  is  complete.  All,  all  is  changed. — But 
no,  not  all.  Unchanged  as  the  eternal  sky  above  us  is 
the  moral  law  which  they  revered.  Unfailing  as  the 
sure  succession  of  the  seasons  is  its  operation  in  the 
affairs  of  men.  All  the  prosperity,  the  power,  the  per- 
manence of  the  republic, — more  than  ever  the  pride  of 
its  children,  more  than  ever  the  hope  of  mankind, — 
rests  upon  obedience  to  that  unchanged  and  unchange- 
able law.  The  essence  of  the  Fathers'  faith  is  still  the 
elixir  of  the  children's  life;  and  should  that  faith  decay, 
should  the  consciousness  of  a  divine  energy  underly- 
ing human  society,  manifested  in  just  and  equal  laws, 
and  humanely  ordering  individual  relations,  disappear, 
— the  murmur  of  the  ocean  rising  and  falling  upon 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  401 

Plymouth  Rock  would  be  the  endless  lament  of  nature 
over  the  baffled  hopes  of  man. 

Undoubtedly,  New  England  in  all  its  aspects  of 
scenery  and  people,  in  its  history  and  achievement,  its 
energy,  intelligence,  sagacity,  industry,  and  thrift, — 
New  England  of  the  church,  the  school,  and  the  town 
meeting,  is  still  the  great,  peculiar  monument  of  the 
Puritan  in  America.  But  where  beyond  its  borders 
more  fitly  than  here,  upon  this  ground  settled  by  chil- 
dren of  the  hospitable  country  which  was  the  first 
refuge  of  the  Puritan,  could  a  memorial  statue  stand? 
In  England  "they  had  heard  that  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries was  freedom  of  worship  for  all  men,"  and  thither 
the  Pilgrims  first  fled;  and  when  from  that  pleasant 
haven  they  resolved  to  cross  the  sea,  they  brought  with 
them  from  Holland  the  free  church  and  the  free  school, 
and  unconsciously,  in  their  principles  and  the  practice 
of  their  religious  organization,  the  free  state.  They 
were  urged  by  a  trading  company  in  Amsterdam  to 
settle  under  Dutch  protection  here  in  New  Netherlands. 
But  yet,  although  they  courteously  declined,  when 
after  sixty-four  days'  tossing  upon  the  ocean  they  saw 
the  desolate  sands  of  Cape  Cod,  they  resolved  to  stand 
toward  the  south,  "to  find  some  place  about  the  Hud- 
son River  for  their  habitation."  They  turned  again, 
however,  to  the  bleaker  shore.  The  Fathers  did  not 
come.  But  long  afterward  the  children  came,  and  are 
continually  coming,  to  renew  the  ancient  friendship. 

Well  may  the  statue  of  the  Puritan  stand  here,  for  in 
the  mighty  miracle  of  the  scene  around  us  his  hand,  too, 
has  wrought.  Here  upon  this  teeming  island  the  chil- 
dren of  New  Netherlands  and  of  New  England  have 
together  built  the  metropolis  of  the  continent,  the  far- 
shining  monument  of  their  united  energy,  enterprise, 
and  skill.  Together  at  the  head  of  yonder  river,  richer 


402  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

in  romance  and  legend  than  any  American  stream,  the 
Puritan  and  the  Hollander  with  their  associate  colo- 
nists meditated  the  American  Union.  Together  in  this 
city,  in  the  Stamp-Act  Congress,  they  defied  the  power 
of  Great  Britain;  and  once  more,  upon  the  Hudson, 
the  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier  and  the  Hollander,  born 
again  as  Americans,  resistlessly  enveloped  and  over- 
whelmed the  army  of  Burgoyne,  and  in  his  surrender 
beheld  the  end  of  British  authority  in  the  Colonies. 
Here,  then,  shall  the  statue  stand,  imperishable  memo- 
rial of  imperishable  friendship;  blending  the  heroic 
memories  of  two  worlds  and  two  epochs,  the  soldier  of 
the  Netherlands,  the  soldier  of  old  England  and  the 
soldier  of  New  England,  at  different  times  and  under 
different  conditions,  but  with  the  same  unconquerable 
enthusiasm  and  courage,  battling  for  liberty. 

The  spirit  which  is  personified  in  this  statue  had 
never  a  completer  expression  than  in  the  Puritan,  but  it 
is  far  older  than  he.  Beyond  Plymouth  and  Leyden, — 
beyond  the  manor-house  of  Scrooby  and  the  dim  shore 
of  the  Humber, — before  Wickliffe  and  the  German  re- 
formers,— on  heaven-kissing  pastures  of  the  everlast- 
ing Alps, — on  the  bright  shores  of  the  Medicean  Arno, 
— in  the  Roman  forum, — in  the  golden  day  of  Athens 
of  the  violet  crown, — wherever  the  human  heart  has 
beat  for  liberty  and  the  human  consciousness  has 
vaguely  quickened  with  its  divine  birthright, — wher- 
ever the  instinct  of  freedom  challenges  authority  and 
demands  the  reason  no  less  than  the  poetry  of  tradition 
— there,  there,  whatever  the  age,  whatever  the  country, 
the  man,  the  costume,  there  is  the  invincible  spirit  of 
the  Puritan. 

But  the  vague  and  general  aspiration  for  liberty  took 
the  distinctive  form  of  historical  Puritanism  only  with 
the  Reformation  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Forerun- 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  403 

ners,  indeed,  harbingers  of  the  general  awakening, 
there  had  been  long  before  Luther,  scattered  voices  as 
of  early-wakening  birds  in  the  summer  night  preluding 
the  full  choir  of  day.  The  cry  of  all,  the  universal  cry 
that  rang  across  Europe  from  Wickliffe  to  Savonarola, 
from  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  to  Zwingli  and 
Erasmus,  from  the  Alpine  glaciers  to  the  fiords  of  Nor- 
way, and  which  broke  at  last  like  a  thunder  clap  from 
the  lips  of  Martin  Luther  and  shook  the  ancient  eccle- 
siastical system  to  its  foundations,  was  the  demand  for 
reform.  To  reform  in  the  language  of  that  great  cen- 
tury meant  to  purify,  and  the  Reformation  was  iden- 
tical with  Purification,  with  Puritanism. 

But  the  spiritual  usurpation  intolerable  in  a  pope  was 
insufferable  in  a  king.  Henry  the  Eighth  would  have 
made  England  a  newer  Rome;  and  Edmund  Burke's 
stately  phrase,  studied  from  the  aspect  of  a  milder 
time,  was  justified  in  all  its  terrible  significance  in 
Elizabethan  England.  The  English  hierarchy  raised 
its  mitred  front  in  Court  and  Parliament,  demanding 
unquestioning  acquiescence  and  submission.  But  the 
conviction  that  had  challenged  Rome  did  not  quail : 
and  the  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  English  as  to  the 
Roman  dogma  of  spiritual  supremacy,  the  unconscious 
protector  of  that  religious,  political,  and  civil  liberty 
which  is  the  great  boon  of  England  to  the  world,  a 
boon  and  a  glory  beyond  that  of  Shakespeare,  of  Bacon, 
of  Raleigh,  of  Gresham,  of  Newton,  of  Watts,  beyond 
that  of  all  her  lofty  literature,  her  endless  enterprise, 
her  inventive  genius,  her  material  prosperity,  her 
boundless  empire,  was  Puritanism. 

If  ever  England  had  an  heroic  age,  it  was  that  which 
began  by  supporting  the  Tudor  in  his  rupture  with 
Rome,  then  asserted  his  own  logical  principle  against 
his  daughter's  claim,  and  after  a  tremendous  contest 


404  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

ended  by  seeing  the  last  of  the  Stuart  kings  exiled  for- 
ever, an  impotent  pensioner  of  France.  This  was  the 
age  of  Puritan  England,  the  England  in  which  liberty 
finally  organized  itself  in  constitutional  forms  so  flex- 
ible and  enduring  that  for  nearly  two  centuries  the  in- 
ternal peace  of  the  kingdom,  however  threatened  and 
alarmed,  has  never  been  broken.  The  modern  Eng- 
land that  we  know  is  the  England  of  the  Puritan 
enlarged,  liberalized,  graced,  adorned — the  England 
which,  despite  all  estrangement  and  jealousy  and  mis- 
understanding, despite  the  alienation  of  the  Revolution 
and  of  the  second  war,  the  buzz  of  cockney  gnats,  and 
official  indifference  in  our  fierce  civil  conflict,  is  still  the 
mother-country  of  our  distinctive  America,  the  mother 
of  our  language  and  its  literature,  of  our  characteristic 
national  impulse  and  of  the  great  muniments  of  our 
individual  liberty.  To  what  land  upon  the  globe  be- 
yond his  own  shall  the  countryman  of  Washington 
turn  with  pride  and  enthusiasm  and  sympathy,  if  not 
to  the  land  of  John  Selden  and  John  Hampden  and 
John  Milton ;  and  what  realm  shall  touch  so  deeply  the 
heart  of  the  fellow-citizen  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  that 
whose  soil,  and  long  before  our  own,  was  too  sacred  for 
the  footstep  of  a  slave  ?  She  is  not  the  mother  of  dead 
empires,  but  of  the  greatest  political  descendant  that 
ever  the  world  knew.  Our  own  revolution  was  the 
defence  of  England  against  herself.  She  has  sins 
enough  to  answer  for.  But  while  Greece  gave  us 
art  and  Rome  gave  us  law,  in  the  very  blood  that  beats 
in  our  hearts  and  throbs  along  our  veins  England  gave 
us  liberty. 

We  must  not  think  of  Puritanism  as  mere  acrid  de- 
fiance and  sanctimonious  sectarianism,  nor  of  the  Puri- 
tans as  a  band  of  ignorant  and  half-crazy  zealots.  Yet 
mainly  from  the  vindictive  caricature  of  a  voluptuous 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  405 

court  and  a  servile  age  is  derived  the  popular  concep- 
tion of  the  Puritan.  He  was  only  slandered  by  Ben 
Jonson's  Tribulation  Wholesome  and  Zeal-of-the-land 
Busy.  The  Puritan  of  whom  Macaulay,  following 
Hume,  said  that  he  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it 
gave  pain  to  the  bear,  but  because  it  gave  pleasure  to 
the  spectator,  was  the  Puritan  of  the  plays  of  Charles 
the  Second,  when  Shakespeare  had  been  replaced  by 
Aphra  Behn,  and  the  object  of  the  acted  drama  was  to 
stimulate  a  passion  palled  by  excess  and  a  taste  bru- 
talized by  debauchery.  The  literature  that  travestied 
the  Puritan  sprang  from  the  same  impotent  hate  which 
scattered  the  ashes  of  Wickliffe  upon  the  Severn  and 
disinterred  the  dead  Cromwell  and  hung  the  body  in 
chains  at  Tyburn,  insulting  the  dust  of  the  hero  who 
living  had  made  England  great,  and  to  whose  policy, 
after  the  effeminate  and  treacherous  Stuart  reaction, 
England  returned.  The  Cavaliers  ridiculed  the  Puri- 
tan as  Burgoyne  and  the  idle  British  officers  in  Bos- 
ton burlesqued  the  Yankee  patriot.  They  had  their 
laugh,  their  jest,  their  gibe.  But  it  is  not  to  the  rollick- 
ing masqueraders  of  the  British  barracks,  to  the  scar- 
let soldiers  of  the  crown,  that  we  look  to  see  the  living 
picture  of  our  Washington  and  Hamilton,  our  Jay  and 
Adams,  who  plucked  from  the  crown  its  brightest  gem. 
It  is  not  the  futile  ribaldry  of  fops  and  fribbles,  of 
courtiers  and  courtesans,  of  religious  slavery  and  po- 
litical despotism,  whose  fatal  spell  over  England  the 
Puritan  had  broken  forever,  which  can  truly  portray 
the  Puritan. 

When  Elizabeth  died,  the  country  gentlemen,  the 
great  traders  in  the  towns,  the  sturdy  steadfast  middle 
class,  the  class  from  which  English  character  and 
strength  have  sprung,  were  chiefly  Puritans.  Puritans 
taught  in  the  universities  and  sat  on  the  thrones  of 


406  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

bishops.  They  were  Peers  in  Parliament,  they  were 
Ambassadors  and  Secretaries  of  State.  Hutchinson, 
graced  with  every  accomplishment  of  the  English  gen- 
tleman, was  a  Puritan.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  by  whose 
side  sat  justice,  was  a  Puritan.  John  Hampden,  purest 
of  patriots,  was  a  Puritan.  John  Pym,  greatest  of 
Parliamentary  leaders,  was  a  Puritan. — A  fanatic? 
Yes,  in  the  high  sense  of  unchangeable  fidelity  to  a  sub- 
lime idea; — a  fanatic  like  Columbus  sure  of  a  western 
passage  to  India  over  a  mysterious  ocean  which  no 
mariner  had  ever  sailed; — a  fanatic  like  Galileo  who 
marked  the  courses  of  the  stars  and  saw,  despite  the 
jargon  of  authority,  that  still  the  earth  moved; — a  fa- 
natic like  Joseph  Warren  whom  the  glory  of  patriotism 
transfigures  upon  Bunker  Hill.  This  was  the  fanatic 
who  read  the  Bible  to  the  English  people  and  quick- 
ened English  life  with  the  fire  of  the  primeval  faith; 
who  smote  the  Spaniard  and  swept  the  pirates  from  the 
sea,  and  rode  with  Cromwell  and  the  Ironsides,  prais- 
ing God;  who  to  the  utmost  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  in  the  shuddering  valleys  of  Piedmont,  to 
every  religious  oppressor  and  foe  of  England  made  the 
name  of  England  terrible.  This  was  the  fanatic,  soft 
as  sunshine  in  the  young  Milton,  blasting  in  Cromwell 
as  the  thunder-bolt,  in  Endicott  austere  as  Calvin,  in 
Roger  Williams  benign  as  Melanchthon,  in  John  Rob- 
inson foreseeing  more  truth  to  break  forth  from  God's 
word.  In  all  history  do  you  see  a  nobler  figure  ?  Forth 
from  the  morning  of  Greece,  come,  Leonidas,  with 
your  bravest  of  the  brave, — in  the  rapt  city  plead,  De- 
mosthenes, your  country's  cause, — pluck,  Gracchus, 
from  aristocratic  Rome  its  crown;  speak,  Cicero,  your 
magic  word;  lift,  Cato,  your  admonishing  hand, — and 
you,  patriots  of  modern  Europe,  be  all  gratefully  re- 
membered ; — but  where  in  the  earlier  ages,  in  the  later 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  407 

day,  in  lands  remote  or  near,  shall  we  find  loftier  self- 
sacrifice,  more  unstained  devotion  to  worthier  ends, 
issuing  in  happier  results  to  the  highest  interests  of 
man,  than  in  the  English  Puritan? 

He  apprehended  his  own  principle,  indeed,  often 
blindly,  often  narrowly,  never  in  its  utmost  amplitude 
and  splendor.  The  historic  Puritan  was  a  man  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  not  of  the  nineteenth.  He  saw 
through  a  glass  darkly,  but  he  saw.  The  acorn  is  not 
yet  the  oak,  the  well-spring  is  not  yet  the  river.  But 
as  the  harvest  is  folded  in  the  seed,  so  the  largest  free- 
dom political  and  religious, — liberty,  not  toleration, 
not  permission,  not  endurance — in  yonder  heaven  Cas- 
siopeia does  not  tolerate  Arcturus  nor  the  clustered 
Pleiades  permit  Orion  to  shine — the  right  of  absolute 
individual  liberty,  subject  only  to  the  equal  right  of 
others,  is  the  ripened  fruit  of  the  Puritan  principle. 

It  is  this  fact,  none  the  less  majestic  because  he  was 
unconscious  of  it,  which  invests  the  emigration  of  the 
Puritan  to  this  country  with  a  dignity  and  grandeur 
that  belong  to  no  other  colonization.  In  unfurling  his 
sail  for  that  momentous  voyage  he  was  impelled  by  no 
passion  of  discovery,  no  greed  of  trade,  no  purpose  of 
conquest.  He  was  the  most  practical,  the  least  roman- 
tic of  men,  but  he  was  allured  by  no  vision  of  worldly 
success.  The  winds  that  blew  the  Mayflower  over  the 
sea  were  not  more  truly  airs  from  heaven  than  the 
moral  impulse  and  moral  heroism  which  inspired  her 
voyage.  Sebastian  Cabot,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Fran- 
cis Drake  and  Frobisher,  Cortez  and  Ponce  de  Leon, 
Champlain,  bearing  southward  from  the  St.  Lawrence 
the  lilies  of  France,  Henry  Hudson  pressing  north- 
ward from  Sandy  Hook  with  the  flag  of  Holland, 
sought  mines  of  gold,  a  profitable  trade,  the  fountain 
of  youth,  colonial  empire,  the  north-western  passage,  a 


408  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

shorter  channel  to  Cathay.  But  the  Puritan  obeyed 
solely  the  highest  of  all  human  motives.  He  dared  all 
that  men  have  ever  dared,  seeking  only  freedom  to  wor- 
ship God.  Had  the  story  of  the  Puritan  ended  with 
the  landing  upon  Plymouth  Rock, — had  the  rigors  of 
that  first  winter  which  swept  away  half  of  the  Pilgrims 
obliterated  every  trace  of  the  settlement, — had  the  un- 
noted Mayflower  sunk  at  sea, — still  the  Puritan  story 
would  have  been  one  of  the  noblest  in  the  annals  of  the 
human  race.  But  it  was  happily  developed  into  larger 
results,  and  the  Puritan,  changed  with  the  changing 
time,  adding  sweetness  to  strength,  and  a  broader  hu- 
manity to  moral  conviction  and  religious  earnestness, 
was  reserved  for  a  grander  destiny. 

The  Puritan  came  to  America  seeking  freedom  to 
worship  God.  He  meant  only  freedom  to  worship  God 
in  his  own  way,  not  in  the  Quaker  way,  not  in  the  Bap- 
tist way,  not  in  the  Church  of  England  way.  But  the 
seed  that  he  brought  was  immortal.  His  purpose  was 
to  feed  with  it  his  own  barnyard  fowl,  but  it  quickened 
into  an  illimitable  forest  covering  a  continent  with 
grateful  shade,  the  home  of  every  bird  that  flies.  Free- 
dom to  worship  God  is  universal  freedom,  a  free  state 
as  well  as  a  free  church,  and  that  was  the  inexorable 
but  unconscious  logic  of  Puritanism.  Holding  that 
the  true  rule  of  religious  faith  and  worship  was  writ- 
ten in  the  Bible,  and  that  every  man  must  read  and 
judge  for  himself,  the  Puritan  conceived  the  church  as 
a  body  of  independent  seekers  and  interpreters  of  the 
truth,  dispensing  with  priests  and  priestly  orders  and 
functions ;  organizing  itself  and  calling  no  man  master. 
But  this  sense  of  equality  before  God  and  toward  each 
other  in  the  religious  congregation,  affecting  and  ad- 
justing the  highest  and  most  eternal  of  all  human  rela- 
tions, that  of  man  to  his  Maker,  applied  itself  instinc- 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  409 

lively  to  the  relation  of  man  to  man  in  human  society, 
and  thus  popular  government  flowed  out  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  the  Republic  became  the  natural  political 
expression  of  Puritanism. 

See,  also,  how  the  course  and  circumstance  of  the 
Puritan  story  had  confirmed  this  tendency.  The  ear- 
liest English  reformers,  flying  from  the  fierce  reaction 
of  Mary,  sought  freedom  in  the  immemorial  abode  of 
freedom,  Switzerland,  whose  singing  waterfalls  and 
ram  des  vaches  echoing  among  peaks  of  eternal  ice  and 
shadowy  valleys  of  gentleness  and  repose,  murmured 
ever  the  story  of  Morgarten  and  Sempach,  the  oath  of 
the  men  of  Rutli,  the  daring  of  William  Tell,  the 
greater  revolt  of  Zwingli.  There  was  Geneva,  the 
stern  republic  of  the  Reformation,  and  every  Alpine 
canton  was  a  republican  community  lifted  high  for  all 
men  to  see,  a  light  set  upon  a  hill.  How  beautiful 
upon  the  mountains  were  the  heralds  of  glad  tidings! 
This  vision  of  the  free  state  lingered  in  the  Puritan 
mind.  It  passed  in  tradition  from  sire  to  son,  and  the 
dwellers  in  Amsterdam  and  Leyden,  maintaining  a 
republican  church,  unconsciously  became  that  repub- 
lican state  whose  living  beauty  their  fathers  had  beheld, 
and  which  they  saw  glorified,  dimly  and  afar,  in  the 
old  Alpine  vision. 

Banished,  moreover,  by  the  pitiless  English  persecu- 
tion, the  Puritans,  exiles  and  poor  in  a  foreign  land,  a 
colony  in  Holland  before  they  were  a  colony  in  Amer- 
ica, were  compelled  to  self-government,  to  a  common 
sympathy  and  support,  to  bearing  one  another's  bur- 
dens; and  so,  by  the  stern  experience  of  actual  life, 
they  were  trained  in  the  virtues  most  essential  for  the 
fulfilment  of  their  august  but  unimagined  destiny. 
The  patriots  of  the  Continental  Congress  seemed  to 
Lord  Chatham  imposing  beyond  the  law-givers  of 


410  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Greece  and  Rome.  The  Constitutional  Convention  a 
hundred  years  ago  was  an  assembly  so  wise  that  its 
accomplished  work  is  reverently  received  by  continu- 
ous generations,  as  the  children  of  Israel  received  the 
tables  of  the  law  which  Moses  brought  down  from  the 
Holy  Mount.  Happy,  thrice  happy  the  people  which 
to  such  scenes  in  their  history  can  add  the  simple  gran- 
deur of  the  spectacle  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower, 
the  Puritans  signing  the  compact  which  was  but  the 
formal  expression  of  the  government  that  voluntarily 
they  had  established — the  scene  which  makes  Ply- 
mouth Rock  a  stepping-stone  from  the  freedom  of  the 
solitary  Alps  and  the  disputed  liberties  of  England  to 
the  fully  developed  constitutional  and  well-ordered  re- 
public of  the  United  States. 

The  history  of  colonial  New  England  and  of  New 
England  in  the  Union  is  the  story  of  the  influence  of 
the  Puritan  in  America.  That  is  a  theme  too  alluring 
to  neglect,  too  vast  to  be  attempted  now.  But  even  in 
passing  I  must  not  urge  a  claim  too  broad.  Even  in 
the  pride  of  this  hour,  and  with  the  consent  of  your 
approving  conviction  and  sympathy,  I  must  not  pro- 
claim that  the  republic  like  a  conquering  goddess 
sprang  from  the  head  fully  armed,  and  that  the  head 
was  New  England.  Yet  the  imperial  commonwealth 
of  which  we  are  citizens,  and  every  sister-State,  will 
agree  that  in  the  two  great  periods  of  our  history,  the 
colonial  epoch  and  that  of  the  national  union,  the  in- 
fluence of  New  England  has  not  been  the  least  of  all 
influences  in  the  formative  and  achieving  processes 
toward  the  great  and  common  result.  The  fondly 
cherished  tradition  of  Hadley  may  be  doubted  and  dis- 
proved, but  like  the  legends  of  the  old  mythology  it 
will  live  on,  glowing  and  palpitating  with  essential 
truth.  It  may  be  that  we  must  surrender  the  story  of 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  411 

the  villagers  upon  the  Connecticut  sorely  beset  by  In- 
dians at  mid-day  and  about  to  yield ;  perhaps  no  actual, 
venerable  form  appears  with  flowing  hair, — like  that 
white  plume  of  conquering  Navarre, — and  with  mar- 
tial mien  and  voice  of  command  rallies  the  despairing 
band,  cheering  them  on  to  victory,  then  vanishing  in 
air.  The  heroic  legend  may  be  a  fable,  but  none  the 
less  it  is  the  Puritan  who  marches  in  the  van  of  our 
characteristic  history,  it  is  the  subtle  and  penetrating 
influence  of  New  England  which  has  been  felt  in  every 
part  of  our  national  life,  as  the  cool  wind  blowing  from 
her  pine-clad  mountains  breathes  a  loftier  inspiration, 
a  health  more  vigorous,  a  fresher  impulse,  upon  her 
own  green  valleys  and  happy  fields. 

See  how  she  has  diffused  her  population.  Like  the 
old  statues  of  the  Danube  and  the  Nile,  figures  reclin- 
ing upon  a  reedy  shore  and  from  exhaustless  urns 
pouring  water  which  flows  abroad  in  a  thousand 
streams  of  benediction,  so  has  New  England  sent  forth 
her  children.  Following  the  sun  westward,  across  the 
Hudson  and  the  Mohawk  and  the  Susquehanna,  over 
the  Alleghanies  into  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  over 
the  Sierra  Nevada  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  endless 
procession  from  New  England  has  moved  for  a  cen- 
tury, bearing  everywhere  Puritan  principle,  Puritan 
enterprise,  and  Puritan  thrift.  A  hundred  years  ago 
New-Englanders  passed  beyond  the  calm  Dutch  Ar- 
cadia upon  the  Mohawk,  and  striking  into  the  primeval 
forest  of  the  ancient  Iroquois  domain  began  the  settle- 
ment of  central  New  York.  A  little  later,  upon  the 
Genesee,  settlers  from  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania 
met,  but  the  pioneers  from  New  England  took  the  firm- 
est hold  and  left  the  deepest  and  most  permanent  im- 
pression. A  hundred  years  ago  there  was  no  white 
settlement  in  Ohio.  But  in  1789  the  seed  of  Ohio  was 


412  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

carried  from  Massachusetts,  and  from  the  loins  of  the 
great  eastern  commonwealth  sprang  the  first  great  com- 
monwealth of  the  West.  Early  in  the  century  a  score 
of  settlements  beyond  the  Alleghanies  bore  the  name 
of  Salem,  the  spot  where  first  in  America  the  Puritans 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  set  foot ;  and  in  the  dawn  of  the 
Revolution  the  hunters  in  the  remote  valley  of  the  Elk- 
horn,  hearing  the  news  of  the  I9th  of  April,  called 
their  camp  Lexington,  and  thus,  in  the  response  of 
their  heroic  sympathy,  the  Puritan  of  New  England 
named  the  early  capital  of  Kentucky.  But  happier 
still,  while  yet  the  great  region  of  the  Northwest  lay  in 
primeval  wilderness  awaiting  the  creative  touch  that 
should  lift  it  into  civilization,  it  was  the  Puritan  in- 
stinct which  fulfilled  the  aspiration  of  Jefferson,  and 
by  the  Ordinance  of  1787  consecrated  the  Northwest  to 
freedom.  So  in  the  civilization  of  the  country  has  New 
England  been  a  pioneer,  and  so  deeply  upon  American 
life  and  institutions  has  the  genius  of  New  England 
impressed  itself,  that  in  the  great  Civil  War  the  pe- 
culiar name  of  the  New-Englander,  the  Yankee,  became 
the  distinguishing  title  of  the  soldier  of  the  Union ;  the 
national  cause  was  the  Yankee  cause ;  and  a  son  of  the 
West,  born  in  Kentucky  and  a  citizen  of  Illinois,  who 
had  never  seen  New  England  twice  in  his  life,  became 
the  chief  representative  Yankee,  and  with  his  hand, 
strong  with  the  will  of  the  people,  the  Puritan  prin- 
ciple of  liberty  and  equal  rights  broke  the  chains  of  a 
race.  New  England  characteristics  have  become  na- 
tional qualities.  The  blood  of  New  England  flows 
with  energizing,  modifying,  progressive  power  in  the 
veins  of  every  State;  and  the  undaunted  spirit  of  the 
Puritan,  sic  semper  tyrannis,  animates  the  continent 
from  sea  to  sea. 

I  have  mentioned  the  two  cardinal  periods  of  our  his- 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  413 

tory,  the  colonial  epoch  and  the  epoch  of  the  Union. 
In  all  exclusively  material  aspects  our  colonial  annals 
are  perhaps  singularly  barren  of  the  interest  which 
makes  history  attractive.  Straggling  and  desultory 
Indian  warfare, — the  transformation  of  wild  forest 
land  to  fertile  fields, — marches  to  the  frontier  to  repel 
the  French, — the  establishment  of  peaceful  industries, 
— the  opening  of  prosperous  trade, — a  vast  contest  with 
nature,  and  incessant  devotion  to  material  circumstance 
and  condition,  but  with  no  soft  and  humanizing  light 
of  native  literature  shining  upon  the  hard  life,  no  re- 
fining art,  no  great  controversies  of  statesmanship  in 
which  the  genius  of  the  English-speaking  race  delights, 
— these,  with  a  rigid  and  sombre  theology  overshadow- 
ing all,  compose  the  colonial  story.  Yet  the  colonial 
epoch  was  the  heroic  period  of  our  annals.  For  be- 
neath all  these  earnest  and  engrossing  activities  of 
colonial  life,  its  unwasting  central  fire  was  the  sensi- 
tive jealousy  of  the  constant  encroachment  of  the  home 
government  against  which  the  Puritan  instinct  and  the 
Puritan  practice  furnished  the  impregnable  defence. 
The  free  church,  the  free  school,  the  town  meeting,  in- 
stitutions of  a  community  which  not  only  loves  liberty 
but  comprehends  the  conditions  under  which  liberty 
ceases  to  be  merely  the  aspiration  of  hope,  and  be- 
comes an  actual  possession  and  an  organized  power, — 
these  were  the  practical  schools  of  American  indepen- 
dence, and  these  were  the  distinctive  institutions  of 
New  England.  Without  the  training  of  such  institu- 
tions successful  colonial  resistance  would  have  been 
impossible,  but  without  New  England  this  training 
would  not  have  been. 

Nay,  more;  I  can  conceive  that  New  England, 
planted  by  a  hundred  men  who  were  selected  by  the 
heroic  struggle  for  freedom  of  two  hundred  years, — 


414  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

New  England,  of  a  homogeneous  population  and  com- 
mon religious  faith,  cherishing  the  proud  tradition  of 
her  origin,  and  during  the  long  virtual  isolation  from 
Europe  of  a  hundred  and  forty  years  successfully  gov- 
erning herself,  might,  even  alone,  with  sublime  temer- 
ity and  without  the  co-operation  of  other  colonies,  have 
defied  the  unjust  mother-country,  and  with  the  unap- 
palled  devotion  of  the  Swiss  cantons  which  the  early 
Puritans  knew,  and  with  all  the  instinct  of  a  true  na- 
tional life,  have  sought  its  independence.  This  I  can 
conceive.  But  the  preliminary  movement,  the  nascent 
sentiment  of  independence  deepening  into  conviction 
and  ripening  into  revolution,  the  assured  consciousness 
of  ability  to  cope  with  every  circumstance  and  to  com- 
mand every  event,  that  supreme,  sovereign,  absolute 
absorption  and  purpose  which  interpret  the  truth  that 
"one  with  God  is  a  majority," — all  this  in  colonial 
America  without  New  England  I  cannot,  at  that  time, 
conceive.  I  do  not  say,  of  course,  that  except  for  New 
England  America  would  have  remained  always  colo- 
nial and  subject  to  Great  Britain.  Not  that  at  all ;  but 
only  this,  that  for  every  great  movement  of  change  and 
progress,  of  research  and  discovery,  of  protest  and 
revolution,  there  must  be  a  pioneer.  Who  supposes 
that  except  for  Columbus  the  western  continent  would 
have  remained  hidden  always  and  unknown  to  the 
eastern  world?  But  who  can  doubt  that  except  for 
the  perpetual  brooding  vision  which  filled  the  soul  of 
the  Genoese  and  bound  him  fast  to  the  mysterious 
quest,  the  awed  Indians  of  San  Salvador  would  not 
have  seen  the  forerunner  of  civilization  on  that  October 
morning  four  centuries  ago,  and  that  except  for  Colum- 
bus, America  would  not  then  have  been  discovered? 
So  in  the  colonial  epoch,  doubtless  the  same  general 
feeling  prevailed  through  all  the  colonies,  the  same 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  41$ 

great  principles  were  cherished,  the  same  motives 
stirred  the  united  colonial  heart.  The  cry  was  not  Vir- 
ginia nor  Massachusetts,  it  was  continental  America. 
But  none  the  less,  on  the  transplanted  sapling  of  the 
English  oak  that  drew  its  sustenance  from  the  common 
American  soil,  the  one  spot  most  sensitive,  most  swell- 
ing, from  which  the  vigorous  new  growth  was  sure  to 
spring,  was  Puritan  New  England. 

In  our  second  historical  epoch,  that  of  the  Union,  the 
essential  controversy,  under  whatever  plea  and  dis- 
guise, was  that  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  free 
government  with  a  social,  political,  and  industrial  sys- 
tem to  which  that  principle  was  absolutely  hostile. 
Tariffs,  banks,  fiscal  schemes,  internal  policy,  foreign 
policy,  state  sovereignty,  the  limitations  of  national 
authority, — these  were  the  counters  with  which  the 
momentous  game  was  played.  I  speak  to  those  in 
whose  memories  still  echo  the  thunders  and  flash  the 
lightnings  of  that  awful  tempest  in  the  forum  and  the 
field.  I  accuse  no  section  of  the  country.  I  arraign 
no  party.  I  denounce  no  man.  I  speak  of  forces 
greater  than  men,  forces  deep  as  human  nature,  forces 
that  make  and  unmake  nations;  that  threw  Hampden 
with  the  Parliament  and  Falkland  with  the  king.  It 
was  a  controversy  whose  first  menace  was  heard  in  the 
first  Congress,  and  which  swelled  constantly  louder  and 
more  threatening  to  the  end.  A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand,  said  the  beloved  patriot  who  was 
to  be  the  national  martyr  of  the  strife.  The  conflict  is 
irrepressible,  answered  the  statesman  who  was  to  share 
with  him  the  conduct  of  the  country  through  the  storm. 
Who  could  doubt  that  it  was  irrepressible  who  knew 
the  American  heart,  but  who  could  doubt  also  that  it 
would  be  tremendous,  appalling,  unyielding,  who  knew 
the  resources  of  the  foe?  American  slavery  was  so 


416  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

strong  in  tradition,  in  sentiment,  in  commercial  inter- 
est, in  political  power,  in  constitutional  theory,  in  the 
timidity  of  trade,  in  the  passion  for  Union,  in  dogged 
and  unreasoning  sectional  hatred;  it  so  pleaded  a  reli- 
gious sanction,  the  patriarchal  relation,  even  a  certain 
romance  of  childlike  dependence  and  the  extension  of 
Christian  grace  to  the  heathen,  that  like  an  unassailable 
fortress  upon  heights  inaccessible  it  frowned  in  gloomy 
sovereignty  over  a  subject  land. 

There  was  but  one  force  which  could  oppose  the  vast 
and  accumulated  power  of  slavery  in  this  country,  and 
that  was  the  force  which  in  other  years  and  lands  had 
withstood  the  consuming  terrors  of  the  hierarchy  and 
the  crushing  despotism  of  the  crown — the  conscience  of 
the  people;  a  moral  conviction  so  undaunted  and  un- 
compromising that  endurance  could  not  exhaust  it,  nor 
suffering  nor  wounds  nor  death  appal.  The  great  ser- 
vice of  the  Puritan  in  the  second  epoch  was  the  appeal 
to  this  conscience  which  prepared  it  for  the  conflict. 
Its  key-note  was  the  immortal  declaration  of  Garrison, 
in  which  the  trumpet-voice  of  the  spirit  that  has  made 
New  England  rang  out  once  more,  clear  and  unmistak- 
able, awaking  at  last  the  reluctant  echoes  of  the  conti- 
nent :  "I  am  in  earnest ;  I  will  not  equivocate,  I  will  not 
excuse,  I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be 
heard."  There  were  other  voices,  indeed,  voices  every- 
where, harmonious  and  historic  voices,  swelling  the 
chorus ;  but  chiefly  from  New  England  came  the  moral 
appeal,  penetrating  and  persistent,  disdaining  political 
argument  and  party  alliance — an  appeal  which,  with 
all  the  ancient  fervor  of  the  Puritan  faith,  spurning 
every  friendly  remonstrance,  every  plea  of  prudence, 
every  prophecy  of  disaster,  and  every  form  of  obloquy 
and  malignant  enmity,  urged  upon  every  citizen  the 
personal  guilt  of  complicity  with  national  wrong,  and 


GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS  417 

by  its  divine  logic  inexorably  forced  parties  to  the  true 
issue,  moulding  our  politics  anew;  and  when  debate 
ended,  the  same  spirit  irradiated  the  embattled  cause 
of  the  Union,  of  the  national  pride,  of  the  honor  of  the 
flag,  with  the  resistless  glory  of  the  old  and  eternal 
Puritan  principle  of  human  liberty  and  equal  rights,  in 
which  our  shame  and  our  sorrow  and  our  long  sec- 
tional alienation  were  utterly  consumed. 

In  the  great  drama  of  our  history  this  was  the  dis- 
tinctive part  of  New  England  in  the  separate  colonies 
and  in  the  later  Union.  Under  another  sky,  in  a  dif- 
ferent time,  and  amid  changed  conditions,  it  was  the 
service  of  the  same  spirit  that  challenged  the  Vatican, 
shook  the  crowned  majesty  of  the  Tudor  and  the  Stu- 
art, and  made  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for 
republican  liberty, — the  spirit  of  the  Lincolnshire  fugi- 
tive, of  the  exile  in  Holland,  of  the  Pilgrim  of  the  May- 
flower and  his  brethren  of  the  Arbella ;  of  the  English 
Puritan,  expanded,  developed,  matured  into  the  Ameri- 
can patriot.  It  is  a  spirit  to  be  reverenced  and  cher- 
ished, and  perpetuated,  if  it  may  be,  in  adequate  and 
noble  human  form  and  so  made  permanently  visible  to 
men.  We  know,  indeed,  that  the  builders  of  memorial 
statues  measure  themselves ;  that  they  raise  in  enduring 
marble  and  in  bronze  imperishable,  relentless  censors 
of  the  lives  of  those  who  build  them,  and  that  no  man 
shall  stand  unrebuked  in  the  sculptured  presence  of 
departed  greatness.  But  the  power  that  rebukes  in- 
spires; and  this  statue  shall  stand  not  only  as  the 
memorial  of  our  reverence  for  the  Fathers,  but  as  the 
pledge  of  the  children's  fidelity  to  the  sublimity  of  their 
fathers'  principle  and  the  grandeur  of  their  fathers' 
aim. 

Here  in  this  sylvan  seclusion,  amid  the  sunshine  and 
the  singing  of  birds,  we  raise  the  statue  of  the  Puritan 


4i 8  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  ORATIONS 

Pilgrim,  that  in  this  changeless  form  the  long  proces- 
sion of  the  generations  which  shall  follow  us  may  see 
what  manner  of  man  he  was  to  the  outward  eye  whom 
history  and  tradition  have  so  often  flouted  and  tra- 
duced, but  who  walked  undismayed  the  solitary  heights 
of  duty  and  of  everlasting  service  to  mankind.  Here 
let  him  stand,  the  soldier  of  a  free  church  calmly  defy- 
ing the  hierarchy,  the  builder  of  a  free  state  serenely 
confronting  the  continent  which  he  shall  settle  and  sub- 
due. The  unspeaking  lips  shall  chide  our  unworthi- 
ness,  the  lofty  mien  exalt  our  littleness,  the  unblench- 
ing  eye  invigorate  our  weakness ;  and  the  whole  poised 
and  firmly  planted  form  reveal  the  unconquerable  moral 
energy — the  master-force  of  American  civilization.  So 
stood  the  sentinel  on  Sabbath  morning  guarding  the 
plain  house  of  prayer  while  wife  and  child  and  neigh- 
bor worshipped  within.  So  mused  the  Pilgrim  in  the 
rapt  sunset  hour  on  the  New  England  shore,  his  soul 
caught  up  into  the  dazzling  vision  of  the  future,  be- 
holding the  glory  of  the  nation  that  should  be.  And  so 
may  that  nation  stand  forever  and  forever,  the  mighty 
guardian  of  human  liberty,  of  God-like  justice,  of 
Christ-like  brotherhood. 


A     000684156     3 


